Hell to Heaven (32 page)

‘Drink of water or something?’ the Tiger said, pouring a glass for himself from a jug on the sideboard.

‘Can you do me a favour and put one of the jugs on the floor for me?’ I said.

He obliged and I drank carefully from it.

‘This would be a good time to head up to the North and talk to them about eating on the Plane,’ the Tiger said.

‘I need to arrange something before I actually try it,’ I said. ‘The whole thing is thoroughly freaking me out.’

‘The idea of eating food in snake form is too revolting?’

‘No.’ I sipped some more water, then raised my snout. ‘Too tempting.’

The demons entered, guided by a guard wearing a sword and the livery of a Horseman. They stopped when they saw me.

‘It’s me, Emma,’ I said. ‘I wanted to make sure you were okay.’

The Tiger didn’t move from the sideboard; he gestured towards the table. ‘Sit and tell Lady Emma how you’re being treated.’

The demons shared a look and sat at the table. I pulled myself onto a chair to speak to them.

‘They’re treating you well here? I want to make sure that you’re being looked after,’ I said.

‘I miss you, ma’am,’ Yi Hao said. She rose and skittered to the sideboard to grab a napkin and blow her nose into it.

‘I miss you too, little one,’ I said.

‘Is there a chance that we’re not the same thing?’ Er Hao said. ‘We were never humans taken and copied. You knew we were demons right from the start.’

‘There is a remote chance that you two aren’t demon copies,’ the Tiger said. ‘We’ll hold you until we’re sure.’

Yi Hao nodded. ‘I’ll stay here as long as there’s any chance I’ll put ma’am at risk.’

‘What about you, Jeremy? Tanaka? Sellen, Mercy, Lucia?’ I said. ‘Are you being treated well?’

‘It’s like a resort, ma’am,’ Jeremy said. ‘The only difference between this and a luxurious holiday is the guards and the fact we can’t go outside.’

‘And the regular demonstrations,’ Tanaka said, miserable.

‘I’m so sorry, Tanaka, it must be so hard for you.’

‘I just wish I could call my family,’ he said. ‘I miss them, and my friends.’

Jeremy shrugged. ‘And I miss my girlfriend.’

‘You can never go back, you know that,’ the Tiger said.

‘I’m trying to remember when the changeover happened, when the real Jeremy died,’ Jeremy said. ‘I
have no idea, I’m sorry.’ He shook his head. ‘What did you tell my girlfriend? That I died?’

‘It’s not good to give people false hope,’ the Tiger said.

Jeremy nodded. ‘I understand.’ He stared at me, his gaze intense. ‘Ma’am…Emma. Can you do me a favour? Can you promise me something?’

‘What, Jeremy?’

‘Yes, both of us,’ Tanaka said. ‘Promise us.’

‘I can’t let you go; you’re programmed to obey your demon masters,’ I said.

‘I’m not asking for that,’ Jeremy said. He took a deep breath. ‘Ma’am, when the time comes, and we’ve outlived our usefulness, and nobody else needs to see how to detect us, could you be the one to end it for us?’

‘Please,’ Tanaka said.

‘Why me?’ I said.

‘Because I think you understand,’ Jeremy said.

‘I can’t do it. In serpent form I can’t perform a clean kill. Particularly on a demon; my venom doesn’t work. It would be slow, painful and messy. You don’t want that. If we do have to end it I want it to be quick for you.’

‘I don’t want to die,’ one of the other three said. ‘Please don’t kill me.’ The other two demons with her echoed her words. ‘We don’t want to die!’

‘She won’t destroy you unless you ask for it,’ Jeremy said to them. ‘Don’t worry, you can trust her.’

The three demons subsided. One of them rushed to the sideboard and grabbed a napkin to blow her nose. When she sat back down, the demon next to her wrapped her arm protectively around her shoulder.

‘Don’t worry, Lucia, nobody will hurt you. Nobody will destroy you,’ I said, and she silently nodded a reply. I glanced at Tanaka. ‘Unless you ask for it.’

‘I don’t care whether it’s slow or fast, ma’am,’ Tanaka said. ‘I want it to be you.’

‘Me too,’ Jeremy said.

‘If the time comes then I’ll think about it,’ I said.

‘No, ma’am, I want your word. Please,’ Jeremy said. ‘I have nothing to look forward to any more. I’m never going to see sunlight again. I’m dead to everybody who knew me. Please, make it be you. You’re the only one I really trust.’

‘Give your word, please,’ Tanaka said.

I dropped my serpent head. ‘I give you my word. Jeremy and Tanaka, I promise that if the time comes to end it for you, I will do it.’

Jeremy and Tanaka shared a relieved smile.

‘Is there anything you need?’ I said.

They both shrugged. ‘We’re comfortable and cared for,’ Jeremy said. ‘Don’t worry about us; just make sure there are no more killers like us out there.’

‘Whoever did this will
pay
,’ the Tiger said. ‘There haven’t been demons who’ve been unaware of their nature—and then self-aware—in a very long time. The Demon King himself banned the use of self-destructing demons. Believe me, whoever made you is going to regret that you were ever created.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ Jeremy said. ‘But I’m sure that Lady Emma will find and destroy whoever’s done this.’ He turned to me. ‘I trust you.’

‘I wish I could be as confident in my abilities as you are,’ I said.

‘You’re the Dark Lady, ma’am, and we’ve been privileged to have worked with you,’ Jeremy said.

‘The privilege has been all mine,’ I said. ‘Now go back and take it easy. I’m going to see what’s happening with the research here.’

‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Jeremy said; he rose, fell to one knee and saluted me. Tanaka saluted me as well.

‘Let’s go see this lab,’ I said to the Tiger.

He led me to another set of double doors. Once we got through them, the change was dramatic: the luxurious, European-style decor gave way to a bare concrete corridor, with another set of steel doors in front of us. He dropped his head and concentrated, and I heard a hiss of air on the other side of the doors. They opened and he guided me through.

‘You have a freaking airlock?’ I said. ‘That’s a waste of time; most demons don’t need air.’

‘True. But a vacuum blows them up nicely,’ he said as we walked down the corridor. ‘The shell can’t hold in the essence and they explode. Very messy.’

‘I didn’t know,’ I said. ‘I’ll remember that.’

Another set of airlock doors opened at the other end, and the Tiger closed them behind us; I heard hissing again as the chamber was evacuated. He guided me through the next set of doors to another guard station, where he used the code words. We were buzzed through to a two-storey corridor with cells off walkways on our level and the one below and what seemed to be a bottomless pit in the centre. The cells were completely silent, the only sounds the Tiger’s boots and my scales as we moved along the metal walkway.

‘How far down does it go?’ I said.

Immediately the area erupted with deafening howls and shrieks of pain. The Tiger concentrated, a sound like screaming feedback seared through my head and the demons were silent again.

‘About four hundred metres,’ the Tiger said. ‘There’s a lift at the end.’

‘Are they in pain?’

‘No. They’re just missing their mommies.’

‘How long do you keep them like this?’

‘As long as it takes,’ he said grimly, and pressed the button for the lift.

‘How long have you had this facility?’ I said. ‘Did John know about it?’

‘We designed it together.’ Inside the lift he held his hand over the panel. It changed to his Tiger paw and the lift doors closed and we started down. He changed his hand back again. ‘It was his idea to start off with, but I had the kids with the brains, so we agreed to build it here.’

‘I wonder if he ever regrets the way he brings up his children,’ I said, almost to myself. ‘They drop the eggs and leave them.’

‘No regrets for being what you are. Ever,’ he said. ‘That is the Way.’

‘But only one in a hundred of his children ever come home,’ I said. ‘Many of them stay reptiles, never aware of who they are. Some of them take human form, but they
still
don’t know what they are. They live human lives, with this terrible secret of being a snake or a turtle, and they’re never able to truly fulfil their destiny unless we manage to find them.’

‘You have your agents out there,’ he said. ‘You do your best, which is more than he ever did. If they are destined to be found, you will find them.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s in their nature to study the arts, babe; they get it from their father. I think you’d get most of the ones that are worthwhile by monitoring the martial arts schools.’

‘Call me babe again and I’ll have you executed.’

‘You’re already having me executed when we’re done here.’

‘Twice.’

‘Cool.’ The lift arrived at the bottom with a jerk and the doors opened. ‘This is it.’

A group of five scientists in white lab coats, all of them obviously children of the Tiger, stood at the lift doors wearing huge grins and carrying clipboards. Five guards armed with swords stood around the perimeter of the room behind them. I stopped, frozen. It looked like an operating theatre but was much bigger; about five times the size of an ordinary hospital theatre. There were three tables, each with a light above it and a bank of monitoring equipment next to it, together with an IV unit.

I resisted the urge to turn and flee, concentrating on my energy centres and trying to ground myself. The dark energy from the demons up above definitely wasn’t helping; neither was the sight of the ooze demon strapped to one of the tables, its edges flowing outwards as it tried to escape. One of the Tiger’s kids said something but I didn’t really hear it. There was a rushing in my ears and all I could see was that demon trying to escape. Something inside me wanted to free it; something else wanted to destroy it; and a third powerful, horrible voice wanted to eat it.

I moved slightly towards it, the change coming on me. It felt so
good.
I would finally be free to be what I was, rather than held back in this small, weak serpent form or the even smaller and weaker human form. I glanced around: food everywhere. Finally, I could feed and fill myself and not be so hungry any more.

Control it, Emma, get a handle on it
, a voice said into my head.

You can do this, you have the willpower
, another voice said.

Fight it down. You need to be here when Xuan Wu
—
John
—
returns for you
, the first voice said, and I recognised it as the Tiger.

I will help you
, the other voice said, and it was John.

Then I was in a glass box, compressed into a tiny space in the back of my mind, with John’s presence all around me and engulfing me. I leapt with joy in my tiny enclosure.

‘Ah Wu, is that you?’ the Tiger said.

I looked around. The Tiger’s children were gathered against the back wall, his guards in front of them, their swords ready.

‘Of course it’s me,’ I said. I arched the first third of my length, touched my nose to the floor, spread my body as flat as possible and concentrated. ‘Tiger, do me a favour, will you? Feed a small amount of yang—a minimal amount, not enough to hurt me—through the floor under me?’

The floor warmed beneath me, glowing with red energy.

The serpent energy centres were very different from the human ones; although there were still three cauldrons, they were elongated and didn’t sit one above the other like they did in the human form. They were long and narrow and stretched out, overlapping through my body, and the gates above each somehow managed to sit at the top without interacting with the cauldrons next to them.

I took deep breaths, turning my consciousness inwards and concentrating on the energy centres. I moved the energy through me, clearing myself of the demon essence.

‘Whiter,’ I said. ‘Stronger.’

The floor didn’t become hotter but the energy intensified. I fed it through my energy meridians, lighting up my serpent length and using it to clear more of the demon essence, burning it away.

The Tiger intensified the energy, making it burn white-hot. ‘Let’s clear that completely!’

‘Stop! Stop!’ I yelled, as the gateways burned too bright. ‘You’ll destroy her! Too much.’

The yang became less intense and I relaxed. ‘That’s a perfect level. Leave it there for a moment.’

I used the yang to clear the essence; it was like burning a black deposit out of the meridians. I couldn’t clear it all without killing myself, but it was enough. I took another deep breath. ‘Thank you, brother. Release the yang so I can come back.’

The energy snapped off and I was suddenly cold. I raised my snout. ‘Okay, let’s see what we have here. Is that an ooze demon? Damn, how’d you catch that and what level is it?’ I looked around; they were all still standing ready to destroy me. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, silly humans,’ I said. ‘But that ooze demon looks delicious.’

‘Ah Wu?’ the Tiger said.

‘Nice job on the facility, old friend.’

‘What about the chick?’ he said.

I turned my attention away from the ooze demon. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘The Emma girl, dumbass. Where is she?’

‘No idea what you’re talking about,’ I said, and slithered towards the demon. I hissed with admiration. ‘Damn, that’s a big one. How’d you get it?’ I turned to look at the Tiger. ‘Nobody died picking this up for you, did they?’

‘Ah Wu, you’re a snake,’ he said. ‘And you’re Emma.’

‘What?’ I felt myself. I was a snake for the first time in ages, and it felt good. I looked around. ‘Did I rejoin? Where’s the rest of me?’

I slithered up and down, looking, but I couldn’t see the turtle half of me anywhere. The separation hit me like a blow right down my middle, from my head to my tail, knocking me onto my back. Half of me was missing and it
hurt.

‘Where’s the rest of me? Tiger? What happened?’ I flopped my head back, weakened by the loss, and sensed someone behind a glass wall at the back of my mind, weeping with joy. ‘Emma? Where’s Emma?’ I tried to raise my head but without the other half of me I was barely able to move.