Hell to Heaven (55 page)

The Demon King appeared, and smiled at the Dark Lord. ‘About time. Let’s talk business.’ He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Damn, she’s fine. Just look at her. Such a waste to change her back.’ He pulled out a sheet of paper. ‘I gave Emma a list of options, but you probably haven’t seen it, so let’s go through them.’

‘Take me,’ Martin said.

‘I don’t want you,’ the Demon King said. ‘You are entirely too much trouble, regardless of how the girls feel about you. And don’t even think it,’ he added, pointing at Leo. ‘I don’t want you either.’ He looked at the sheet of paper. ‘Let’s start with you, Ah Wu. How about you in a jade cage for…oh…’ He made a show of thinking about it. ‘About a thousand years?’

‘No,’ the Dark Lord said.

‘Five hundred?’

‘Try something else. You’re not having me.’

The Demon King grinned at the Dark Lord. ‘But I’ve wanted you for so long! Every kid I’ve spawned has gone after your head. All this time, every single one of them, out there after you. Do you realise exactly how much of a royal pain in the ass you are?’

‘That’s why the answer is no.’

The King spun and pointed. ‘Him.’

The cat had appeared on the other side of the room and he took a step back. ‘How long for?’

‘Five thousand years.’

‘No,’ the Dark Lord said.

‘A thousand? Or how about one of the others? How about that ugly blue dragon, the bastard? He’s such a
selfish piece of shit it would do him good to sit in a cage for a while.’

‘Now
that’s
a tempting offer,’ the cat said.

‘You are not having any of the Four Winds,’ the Dark Lord said. ‘We are too important to the safety of too many. Each of our dominions is spread too thin when one of us is gone. The hundred years I could be gone is already far too long. The answer is no. Not me, not them. Try again.’

‘Another day out of Hell,’ the King said.

The Dark Lord went still, his expression full of restraint.

‘The humans are accustomed to it now, Ah Wu,’ the King said. ‘They leave offerings everywhere on Hungry Ghosts Day; the spirits are well fed. Another day added to that, they won’t even notice.’

‘Is that doable?’ the cat said.

‘If I give them another day every year, their power will grow while they are out,’ the Dark Lord said. ‘As it is, they grow stronger every year and we must constantly work to reduce their power. If they had two days, they would be four times stronger—then eight—they would begin to have physical effects on the population of the Earthly.’

‘The Hungry Ghosts could actually hurt people directly?’ Simone said.

‘Yes,’ the Dark Lord said. ‘As it is, they influence people with dark ambition. With two days, they would be able to act on those ambitions themselves.’

‘I guess that’s a no then,’ the King said. ‘Shame.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m out of ideas.’

‘Take my wives,’ the cat said. ‘You can have them.’

‘Oh, now that’s a tempting offer,’ the King said.

‘No,’ the Dark Lord said. ‘That is not an option.’

‘They’re
my
wives!’ the cat shouted.

‘And I’m your Lord and I say no!’ the Dark Lord said.

‘Pulling rank?’

The Dark Lord nodded once sharply.

‘Twice in a hundred years,’ the cat said. ‘What is it with you and women? They’re always getting you into trouble.’

The Demon King grinned broadly. ‘The Tiger has a point.’

The Tiger turned away. ‘Always falling for the wrong damn females. That snake concubine bitch, then that Michelle bitch, now this Emma bitch. Always the wrong chick.’

‘The Death Mother plotted against you,’ I said. ‘The Geek, the Death Mother, Prince Six and his consort—they all plotted against you. Only the Death Mother is left. We can bring her to you in exchange. In exchange for my free will.’

They all stared at me.

‘Oh, Emma,’ Simone said softly. ‘It’s about time.’

The Dark Lord glanced sharply at the Demon King. ‘That we can do.’

The Demon King raised one hand and grinned. ‘Oh, I don’t think so. You’ll destroy her anyway. But how about this?’ His grin widened. ‘Kitty Kwok. She’s the one behind it all. She’s the one who financed Simon, and who gathered those other four together to go after me. I want her, and she’s human. I can’t touch her, by the terms of an agreement that I have with
you.
‘ He leaned towards the Dark Lord. ‘But you can. You can bring her to me and put her in a cage of Celestial Jade for me.’

‘Why Celestial Jade?’ the Tiger said. ‘This stinks of a trap for the Dark Lord.’

‘She’s been using some sort of twisted energy manipulation, draining children to give her Immortality,’ the Demon King said. ‘If I’m to hold her, I need something that’ll hold an Immortal.’

‘We can give you Kitty Kwok,’ I said. ‘But don’t torture or kill her. Just hold her.’

‘This is a trap!’ the Tiger shouted.

‘No, no, no,’ the Demon King said. ‘I promise. I give my word.’ He paused, and chose his words carefully, and the air grew silent around us as power gathered. ‘Xuan Wu, promise to bring me Kitty Kwok and put her in a cage of Celestial Jade for me. I vow I will not torture or kill her. I will not hold you, Turtle, that I swear. Promise you will do this thing for me, and I will free your Lady from the demon essence.’ He waved one hand at me. ‘Make me this promise and I will free her right now. She will be free from the demon essence, she will walk the Celestial whole, and she can be yours again when you return, which, from the looks of you, won’t take much longer. This I swear by all the forces of Hell.’

‘Emma, do you agree to giving him Kitty Kwok?’ the Dark Lord said.

‘She doesn’t have enough free will to decide,’ Simone said.

‘Yes, I do,’ I said. ‘I would do anything to be by his side and to be human. I will give Kitty Kwok to the Demon King under these terms.’

‘This absolutely fucking reeks of a trap,’ the Tiger said.

‘I know,’ the Dark Lord said. ‘But it is the only way we can free Emma.’

‘I vow I will not hold the Turtle in the Celestial Jade,’ the Demon King said. ‘I will release him immediately.’

‘And Emma,’ the Dark Lord said. ‘You will release Emma.’

‘I will release Emma. I do not want Emma, this I promise. I don’t want either of you. What I want is for you to put Kitty Kwok in a cage of jade for me.’

The Tiger turned away. ‘I really don’t like this.’

‘Neither do I,’ the Dark Lord said. ‘But right now I cannot fault it.’ He stood straighter and looked the Demon King in the eye. ‘I will do it.’

‘We have an agreement?’

The Dark Lord nodded, his eyes fierce. ‘We have an agreement.’

‘Make the vow. I have already made mine. I give you my word by the Ten Levels of Hell.’

The air grew thicker and more silent around us. It was as if the whole world held its breath.

‘I vow that I will capture Kitty Kwok, take her to Hell and place her in a cage of Celestial Jade for you. This I swear as Xuan Wu, Xuan Tian Shang Di.’

A blast of wind blew through the room, and was gone.

‘Kneel, Emma,’ the Demon King said kindly. ‘Everybody move back. This might get messy.’

‘Don’t hurt her!’ Simone said.

Xuan Wu took Simone by the shoulders and pulled her back slightly. ‘Stay back, Simone.’

‘When you did this the last time, it was easy,’ I said to the Demon King. ‘Why do you need them to move back now?’

‘Because last time you weren’t fully demon,’ the King said. ‘Down, Emma, this is going to hurt.’

I kneeled, and focused on Xuan Wu’s dark eyes. They were full of pain. ‘Everybody back,’ he said. ‘The King is right. This may get messy.’

The Demon King kneeled behind me, so close I could feel his body against my back. He put his hands on my shoulders and I felt his breath on the back of my neck as he spoke. ‘Whatever happens, don’t touch her until I’m done. Nobody move until I say I’m done. I’m not going to hurt her—well, okay, I am going to hurt her, but this is what you want. I’m not going to do any permanent damage to her. Just stay away, because if you interfere through any of this, you’ll kill her.’

‘Do as he says,’ the Dark Lord said.

‘Are you ready, Emma?’ the Demon King said to the back of my neck.

I nodded. ‘I’m ready.’

It started as a prickle on the back of my neck and spread through my shoulders, gaining heat quickly. The heat grew inside me, becoming unbearable, and I pulled away.

‘Stay,’ he said into my ear. ‘Don’t fight it. You have to keep still and let me burn this out of you.’

I held myself still, trembling, with his hands on my shoulders and molten fire running through me. The burning flared within me and I couldn’t bear it. I had to let something out.

I heard screaming, and then realised it was me.

Focus on me.

I concentrated on his dark eyes that reflected the pain I felt within me. I couldn’t breathe; my lungs were full of fire. I gasped in air and every breath filled me with more burning. My skin peeled from me and my raw, bleeding flesh screamed as it touched the air.

I burned, and I looked into his eyes, and the floor spiralled up to meet me.

I coughed, and moaned at the pain. Every single centimetre of me felt as if it had been scorched raw. I
tried to move to make myself more comfortable, and moaned again.

Strong hands grabbed me and lifted me to sit and I screamed at the roughness of the movement. Someone put their hands on my face and I took deep, heaving, grunting breaths. I couldn’t hold it any more; I let it out as another scream, but it didn’t make me feel better.

‘What do we do…what do we do?’ Simone was saying.

I tried to tell her that I was all right but I couldn’t speak. Every breath felt like sharp metal piercing through me. The hands touched me on my raw skin and caused me even more searing pain. Every place I was touched was another lance into me. My eyes were open but I was blind. My tongue was gone, my skin was gone, everything was gone.

‘Get her to the infirmary,’ John said. His voice moved closer. ‘Emma, you will survive this. You must survive this. I can’t hold it any longer…’

‘No!’ Simone shouted, hoarse with effort. ‘Don’t leave me now! Don’t leave us now!’

‘He’ll be back,’ Leo said.

A sharp pain stabbed me in the thigh. I wanted to ask if it was a painkiller, I wanted to beg that it was a painkiller. Painkillers would work now, wouldn’t they? Drugs would work?

The drowsiness flooded through me and I became detached. The pain went away, and I went away from the pain. I breathed more easily. Painkillers worked. Thank the Heavens.

‘S
he can’t survive this,’ Edwin said. ‘She has third-degree burns to…well, to one hundred per cent of her. She’s been burnt down to the lowest dermal layer all over, some parts even further. Inside as well—I don’t know how she’s breathing. She should be dead now, and she will be dead soon. All I can do is ease her pain.’

‘No, Edwin, the Demon King burned the demon essence out of her,’ Simone said. ‘We made a pact with him. She’ll survive.’

‘She can’t survive.’

‘She will!’

I wanted to ask for more pain relief but I couldn’t speak because my tongue was gone. I cycled down, moving my new, clean chi energy through me. The outside was a shredded mass of agony, but the inside was clean. I wanted to scream with joy and pain at the same time.

‘Can you change to serpent, Emma?’ Simone said, holding my hand, causing me sharp pain. It was bearable with the drugs but it was still there.

I shook my head. I didn’t have the focus to change, not with this amount of drugs and pain and bleeding.

Strong hands held my left arm at the elbow. I recognised the feeling of having a drip inserted and nearly panicked at the flashback of the demon essence going into me.

‘No, Emma, it’s Edwin, it’s saline,’ Simone said. ‘Saline and more painkillers.’

I relaxed and she sighed.

To my vast relief, I floated above the bed, no longer touching it. Now I didn’t have anything except Simone’s hand against my raw skin. I relaxed even more.

‘Thanks, Leo,’ Simone said softly.

‘The stone said to do it,’ Leo said. ‘It says every touch is agony for her.’ His voice broke. ‘Why did it have to be like this?’

Simone tried to release my hand, but I held it. She tried to shake herself free and I had to let go; the pain was too much. ‘If being touched hurts then it’s not worth it,’ she said.

I flailed around, looking for her hand, and she took it again.

There were noises and protests, then the Tiger spoke. ‘Holy fucking shit.’

‘Mind your language,’ Leo said.

‘I agree with him,’ Simone said, her voice weary. ‘Oh God, she’s bleeding on me. There’s blood and goo coming out of her skin everywhere.’

I wanted to push her away, she shouldn’t have to see this.

‘No, Emma,’ she said. ‘I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you.’

‘She says she’ll be here for you as well, Simone,’ the stone said.

‘You can relay?’

‘She’s in a hazy state and her mind is muddled with the pain,’ the stone said. ‘Her tongue is gone, her eyes are burnt out of her head, and she’s absolutely thrilled to be free of the demon essence, the silly human. She’s dying of burns and happy.’

‘She won’t die. She can’t die.’

‘She thinks the same thing.’

‘We
asked
for this,’ Simone said, desperate. ‘We
paid
for this.’

‘Ma’am,’ Edwin said, ‘she has twelve hours at the most with these sorts of burns. That’s twelve hours using her advanced energy skills to keep her alive. I will do my best to keep her comfortable, and you can stay with her.’

‘I’ll stay with her until the end,’ Simone said. ‘Whatever happens, I’ll be here.’

‘Me too,’ Leo said.

‘She says thank you,’ the stone said.

I floated up from the quiet place into the pain again. Someone had wrapped me in cool, damp cloth and it eased the agony slightly.

I’m here, we’re here
, the stone said.
Emma, it doesn’t look good for you. It’s been six hours and you’re just as bad. The burns are poisoning you, you’re dying. If you have anything you want to say to them, now would be a good time, because very soon Edwin will to have to overdose you just to keep you on the sane side of pain relief.