Red Phoenix (20 page)

I threw myself onto his sword.

The blade went straight through me with hardly any
force; it must have been razor-sharp. It scraped past my spine on the way through.

I grabbed his wrist with my left hand. There, demon, try getting around that. One hand was locked with the sword through me; the other hand was holding Simone. He didn’t have a free hand to do anything.

I thrust my other fist through his face. I just needed to survive long enough to kill him…

He exploded all over me. Thank God that monster was finally gone; I didn’t need to worry about him any more. But it would have been nice to be clean and dead instead of covered in black stuff like this.

The ground hit me like a wall, smashing into me from the side. The sword twisted inside me as I landed, adding to my agony.

I struggled to speak. ‘Are you all right, Simone?’

I thought I heard her say, ‘I’m okay,’ but she faded. Everything faded. It all disappeared.

‘
I
didn’t know you were capable of something so cruel,’ John’s voice said in the darkness. Of course I was capable of something that cruel. I felt a stab of pain. Goodbye, love. Heaven and Earth didn’t move for us.

‘It needed to be done,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘She needed to face her fear, and realise that it is simply not possible.’

I may have been able to speak to them. It was worth a try.

‘Is Simone okay?’ I surprised myself; my voice was just a dry croak, but it was there.

A cool, callused hand held mine.

‘Open your eyes, Emma,’ John said.

I opened them but I couldn’t see very much. Then two figures swam into view. John on my left, holding my hand. That proved it: definitely dead, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to touch me. Ms Kwan on my right, holding my other hand, with the most anguished expression I had ever seen on her face.

John helped me to sit up, and I had a moment of dizziness. I expected the sword to twist inside me again, but it seemed to be gone. Thank heaven for small
mercies. John’s hand came around the back of my head to lift me. They both watched me, concerned.

‘Simone,’ I said. ‘Simone.’ I tried to get more words out. My throat was too dry to speak properly. ‘Is okay? Alive?’

‘Simone is fine, my love,’ John said. ‘We all are. Mercy just showed you how wrong you are. Look at you. Even now. You think we are all dead, and your first thought goes to Simone.’ His voice thickened. ‘You truly love her as if she were your own.’

I didn’t really hear him. ‘Where’s Simone? Is she all right?’ I jerked my hands free. ‘Oh my God! Leo! No. No! Leo. Michael. John.’ I peered up at him. ‘John?’

Kwan Yin put her hand on my forehead. ‘I am so sorry, little one, but it needed to be done. Sleep.’

‘Contact the Hall of Records,’ Ms Kwan was saying. ‘There may be a lost Shen, and it may be her. The stone is right: there is something there.’ Her voice softened. ‘But it was wrong of the stone to frighten her so. She does not deserve that sort of treatment. You will be dealt with appropriately when the time comes, I can assure you, stone.’

‘Do you think I should take the stone back and give her something slightly less troublesome?’ John said.

‘I vow to cause you less trouble, my Lord,’ the stone said. ‘I apologise. I told only the truth. I beg you, do not take me back. I am profoundly honoured by my role. Please leave me here. I promise to behave.’

‘See what Emma has to say about it,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘She may still want to flush it down the toilet.’

‘I do.’ I opened my eyes. There they were.

‘Please tell me Simone’s okay.’ My voice sounded really strange, hardly anything at all, just a hoarse whisper.

John dropped his head and shook it with wonder. He looked back up and gazed into my eyes with an
expression of such adoration that my throat tightened. ‘Everybody is absolutely fine,’ he said.

‘Can you sit up, Emma?’ Ms Kwan said.

‘I can try,’ I said, but it came out a whisper.

Both of them pulled me up and I managed to stay there. I looked around. I was on the couch in the study of Ms Kwan’s imaginary house. I had no recollection of arriving there. The last thing I remembered was coming home after taking Simone to the Obelisk, then slipping out to buy a few things at a pharmacy down the street.

‘How come you can touch me?’ I said.

He raised his other hand, which was holding Ms Kwan’s. I understood; she shielded me.

‘Did you do that to me?’ I whispered. ‘Ms Kwan? You made me live through that?’

‘I’m sorry, Emma, but it had to be done,’ she said. ‘Do you understand now?’

A great many unpleasant words hit the back of my throat. I swallowed them all.

I thought back. I did that. I threw myself onto Wong’s sword to save Simone. There was nothing inside me he could control. I was just being paranoid. Of course I would never hurt Simone. John was right: I did love her as if she was my own. Nothing else mattered; not John, not Leo, not me. As long as Simone was okay, everything else was just detail.

‘Lady Kwan Yin,’ I whispered, ‘thank you so very much.’

Both of them sighed with relief. They probably thought I was about to leap up and chop their heads off.

‘Did you say I could be a lost Shen, Ms Kwan?’ I said.

‘I think that is a remote possibility,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘But I think it is more likely that you are just a very talented human being who is in love with her Dark
Lord and is learning from him in many more ways than one. You have shared your minds and your bodies. Of course you are becoming more alike all the time.’

‘That actually makes sense,’ I said. ‘That’s the most sensible thing anyone’s said to me in quite a while.’

‘Do you understand now that you could never hurt any of us?’ John said.

‘Of course I could never hurt anybody. I can’t believe I thought that.’ I should have looked into my heart straightaway and seen the truth, instead of letting the stone make me so worried. Dark heartless monster.

‘Humph,’ I said. ‘Of course I’m a dark heartless monster with hidden depths. I’m your Lady. I’m rapidly turning into a smaller version of you.’

He smiled intensely into my eyes. ‘You say that as if it were a bad thing.’

‘You’re damn right it’s a bad thing. I’m my own woman here and the last thing I want to be is another you. I’m
me
.’

‘You are quite extraordinary,’ Ms Kwan whispered.

‘I’m going to make you pay me money every time you say that,’ I snapped. ‘I’ll be very wealthy indeed.’

She smiled, reached into the pocket of her white silk pantsuit, and gave me a gold coin in the traditional round shape with a square hole in the middle. ‘Here, but I think it is a drop in the ocean compared to the riches you already possess.’

‘I think you are quite right, Lady.’

John dropped his head to kiss me and I stopped him with my hand on his chest. ‘John, please. I need to see them. Can we go out and see them right now? I need to prove to myself that they’re still here. I need to see Simone and give her a big hug, right now. Just to make sure.’

He smiled. ‘Let me help you up.’ He carefully didn’t let go of Ms Kwan’s hand.

The next morning, our last in Paris, Simone dragged Leo along the Champs-Élysées from the Jardin des Tuileries. I followed, with Michael next to me.

Michael stopped. We continued walking, but he didn’t catch up. I turned back to see what his problem was. He was staring into the park at the side of the road, his face rigid with emotion.

I looked in the same direction, and Leo stiffened beside me.

The Tiger sat on a park bench, smiling and talking to a blonde woman, holding her hand. He put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. She turned and rested her head on his chest, bringing her face into view.

It was Rhonda.

Michael stormed towards them.

The Tiger saw him and grinned, then they both disappeared.

Michael stood and glared at the park bench, then shook himself and returned to us. ‘Let’s go.’

‘You wanna talk about it?’ Leo said softly.

‘No,’ Michael said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

He called her later that evening, after dinner. We left him alone, but everybody could hear him shouting at her. He still refused to talk about it afterwards.

After we’d shown the London real estate agent out, John called Michael and Leo to bring Simone down from the top-floor nursery.

‘Are we going to the Science Museum now?’ Simone yelled as she clattered down the stairs.

‘Yes, we can have lunch there,’ I said.

‘Good!’ She threw herself at John. ‘I want the chicken.’

John lifted her and sat her on his hip. ‘Michael, with us. Leo, you have things to do. Take the rest of the day.’

Leo was tremendously relieved. ‘My Lord. Where’s the list?’

‘On my desk.’

‘Buy him some more like this,’ I said, pointing to the black straight-cut jeans and black T-shirt Leo had picked up for John in Paris. ‘He looks like a Chinese rock star on holiday.’

‘You like it?’ Leo said, grinning.

‘Buy Emma some matching ones,’ John said.

‘Oh no. No way. I buy my own clothes.’

‘You’ll have to wait until we’re in Paris again for jeans,’ Leo said. ‘I buy the more formal stuff here.’

‘Buy anything for me and you are in
serious trouble
,’ I said.

John focused on Leo and spoke silently to him.

‘No, you don’t! Out loud!’ I shouted.

Leo nodded to John, then touched Michael on the arm. ‘Michael, stay close to them and guard them well. I want a good report when I see you later.’

‘Don’t you dare buy me anything,’ I growled.

‘Come on, Emma, hurry up,’ Simone said. She wriggled out of John’s arms and took my hand. ‘I wanna go to the Science Museum.’

J
ohn held one of Simone’s hands, I held the other, and we bounced her along the street to the Science Museum. John sparkled with energy and appeared slightly younger than me, in his late twenties. He really did look like a rock star on holiday wearing his new jeans.

It felt wonderful to walk together down the leafy Kensington street on a crisp, bright London summer’s day. Michael followed, very quiet.

When we arrived at the Museum Simone dashed inside, then stopped. ‘Sorry, Daddy.’ She returned to us, took John’s hand, and we entered together.

After we’d been through just about every display, we had lunch in the new wing with its computerised displays at the far end of the Museum. The second floor housed tremendously annoying interactive musical computers, but Simone really liked them so we stayed there for a while.

‘Does she have to see
absolutely everything
?’ Michael asked me, weary.

‘Yes, she does. You saw Leo’s face when we let him off.’

Simone dragged us to the top floor of the new wing. Each floor was smaller than the one below, allowing us
to see all the way to the ground. Two round tables with projected computer images were the only display on the top floor. Six people could stand around each table and interact with the computer.

Michael, Simone and I took a place each and played games about the future of technology, genetics and space exploration. Michael and Simone competed fiercely to see who could win the most points. John stood and watched with his arms folded over his chest; he was too fast to give anybody a fair chance and the kids had thrown him off.

John tied back his hair.

The Museum fell completely silent, then a silent noise boomed through the whole structure. A vibration shuddered from my feet to my head. Without changing temperature, the air went very hot, then very cold. Something was very, very wrong.

The expression on John’s face probably mirrored my own. Simone and Michael hadn’t felt it. I went to John. ‘What was that?’

He didn’t need to reply. A large school group were visible on the ground floor of the Museum, running around and talking loudly. A minute ago they hadn’t been there.

John was very calm and spoke softly. ‘There are about fifty of them. We need to get out of here.’

‘Why here, just after you’ve been to Paris? You’re at your strongest.’

‘They know Simone comes here every single damn time,’ he said placidly. He concentrated. ‘This is a really big one.’

‘We’re ready for them,’ I said, much more calmly than I felt.

‘I still think we’ll need some help. We’re pinned on the top floor.’

The demons were clearly audible coming up the levels towards us, talking loudly and shrieking as if they were normal children. John looked around, then gestured. ‘Fire escape. Let’s go.’

I went behind Simone and Michael and quietly spoke to them. ‘We have to move. Leave it. Let’s go.’

Michael appeared bewildered, but Simone’s eyes widened. ‘There’s a lot of demons coming, Emma,’ she said, breathless.

‘How many, ma’am?’ Michael said as we approached the door.

‘Lord Xuan says about fifty.’ I tried to control my voice. ‘You can hear them coming, they’ve taken the form of a school group.’

John waited at the fire escape. I moved to open it, but he raised his hand to stop me.

The demons spread out, still talking noisily to each other, on the floor below us. They were looking for us. They would be on our level soon.

Gold appeared next to John. He examined the door and smiled grimly, then put his hand on the latch and concentrated. He became completely transparent, as if he was made out of clear plastic, with his stone self clearly visible in the middle of his chest.

Michael gasped.

Gold returned to his normal human form and pushed the door open for us without setting off the alarm. He smiled and waved us through.

We went through the doors to the top of an external set of metal stairs, a standard fire escape. No stairs led further up, and I had the incongruous thought: oh, what a shame. We couldn’t do the typical action-movie thing of stupidly running up to the roof and pinning ourselves with no way out.

We quickly and carefully took the stairs down. The Museum’s back loading dock was at the bottom. It was
nearly deserted; it was almost closing time. Damn. If it had been busy then the demons would have stayed away.

When we were about halfway down Jade appeared, flying over the roof in dragon form, whipping through the air. She landed lightly on the ground of the loading dock. She checked the location, her gold claws making metallic clicks on the pavement as she moved. She glanced up to us and nodded.

Gold vaulted over the edge of the railing, and splattered like goo when he hit the ground. He quickly re-formed and stood next to Jade.

A couple of Celestial Masters appeared next to them: two of the most senior Masters on the Mountain. The Shaolin Master, in his tan jacket and pants, and the Energy Master, in a plain black cotton pantsuit with white cuffs.

The Shaolin Master, Master Liu, was a tiny ancient Chinese man with a completely bald head, a long flowing white beard and matching white eyebrows. His eyes twinkled merrily as he smiled up at us. He held one hand in the traditional Shaolin greeting of a half-prayer and bowed slightly.

The Energy Master, also Master Liu, was a tall, elegant European woman with short dark hair and an intelligent, angular face, appearing in her mid-forties. She saluted us Chinese-style, hand on fist.

‘Hi, Emma,’ she called in her delightful English accent.

‘Hi, Meredith,’ I called back. I really liked Meredith, she was the only Master who didn’t give me a lot of grief about calling me ‘Lady Emma’.

‘What do we have here, my Lord?’ the Shaolin Master said as we neared the bottom of the stairs.

‘About fifty of them, only small ones, taking the form of English schoolchildren,’ John said.

‘Always knew English schoolboys were right demonic little bastards,’ Meredith said cheerfully.

As soon as we were all together, the Immortals stopped and looked at each other. Then they turned as one to face the exit of the loading dock where it met the street.

‘Goodness me,’ Meredith said evenly. ‘South Kensington is Demon Central today.’

John faced the alley. ‘Here they come, and the ones from inside are coming out as well. Attacked from both sides. Put the children and Emma in the middle—’

‘Oh no you don’t,’ I said loudly. ‘Put me next to Meredith and I’ll use energy. She can help me when I fill up.’

John opened his mouth to say something and I glared him down.

‘Permission to fight, my Lord,’ Michael said. ‘Let me at them.’

‘Let him,’ I said. ‘It’s his job.’ ‘Very well,’ John said.

‘And I’m not a
child
,’ he said under his breath.

‘I know,’ I whispered back. ‘But both of us are, compared to them.’

Jade remained in dragon form. She sharpened the golden claws of one foreleg against the claws of the other with a metallic rasping sound.

Gold froze and concentrated, then his whole body turned into the same stuff his stone was made of: quartz gleaming with veins of gold. He still moved fluidly, even though he was made of stone.

The door at the top of the fire escape opened and the children came down the stairs. They dropped the childlike act as they came, becoming very quiet and serious, their little feet moving in unison like a zombie army.

‘Emma, Meredith, Michael, Liu,’ John said, and pointed behind him. ‘Me, Jade, Gold,’ and pointed next to him. ‘Simone between us.’ He cracked his knuckles
loudly. ‘Count them as you take them. The one who destroys the fewest is buying dinner.’

‘I’ll lose then,’ Meredith said cheerfully over her shoulder as she moved into position next to me. ‘My Art is the slowest. But that’s okay, I know an excellent family-friendly pub over near Oxford Circus. The little Princess will love it.’

‘Not Western food,’ John moaned. More demons appeared at the end of the alley. These looked like ordinary European men and women. ‘You women hate me.’

Meredith and I shared a smile. Then we turned to face the demons.

‘Look sharp, Emma,’ Meredith said. ‘If you fill up, just point the energy in my direction and let go, or throw it into the ground. Please don’t blow yourself up, dear. If you do, the Dark Lord will be totally impossible for absolutely bloody ages.’

The demons moved into range and I threw balls of chi at them, making them explode with a satisfying thump. ‘You mean
more
impossible, Meredith.’

Shaolin Master Liu ran into the middle of the demons and cut through them with hands, fists and feet. He was so fast he was a tan-coloured blur. Demons exploded around him as he shredded them. He took the time to bounce off the wall and throw himself back into the middle of them.

‘Show-off!’ Meredith yelled as she blew up demons with a devastating destructive rhythm. She stopped using energy and went in next to Master Liu, using the tai chi moves with deadly speed and accuracy, her hands glowing with energy as she struck. The Lius positioned themselves back to back and cut down every demon that approached them.

My energy neared a dangerous level as I absorbed the demons’ chi. ‘Heads up, Meredith!’ I shouted, and
shot a large ball of chi straight at her. She caught it, broke it into tiny balls, and scattered them around her, hitting about twenty demons at the same time.

Michael faced the demons one at a time and was more than a match for them. His face was a grim mask of fury as he destroyed them hand-to-hand. He didn’t shift from his position next to me and in front of Simone.

‘How’s it going back there, John?’ I shouted over my shoulder.

‘Haven’t had this much fun in a long time,’ John called back without losing his rhythm. He destroyed the demons with effortless ease; his ponytail didn’t even move. He raised his voice so that everybody could hear him. ‘Be aware, people, there are more on the way, and they are bigger than these. Clear these out quickly so that we have room to work; they are just to soften us up.’

‘Any Princes on their way, John?’ I said. ‘At this stage I couldn’t say. But I can take him anyway.’

The two Masters Liu had finished the demons around them and returned to me.

Michael used the second-last demon as a weapon and smashed it into the last one, making both explode.

Jade, Gold and John finished off the last few stragglers. We returned to position around Simone.

‘Jade,’ John said.

‘My Lord.’

A cloud appeared above us and drenched us in a brief, intense shower of warm water, washing the black demon stuff off us.

‘My jacket will run,’ the Shaolin Master said cheerfully.

‘Just take it off if you don’t like it, sweetheart,’ Meredith said.

‘Oh, please don’t,’ Jade said with distress. ‘Anyone want to dry off?’

We nodded. The cloud disappeared. A small whirlwind of warm air gave us a quick blow-dry.

‘Here they come,’ John said. ‘Nice and big. Stay very still, Simone. Michael, don’t try to take on these ones.’

‘What do we have here, people?’ I said.

‘Bugs,’ John said cheerfully.

I ran my hands through my damp hair and retied my ponytail. ‘Oh no, I hate bugs.’

‘What, the way they spray disgusting brown sludge everywhere when you smash their shells?’ John said with relish.

‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ I said quietly.

‘You can stand behind us if you like, dear,’ Meredith said. ‘You don’t have to face them if you don’t want to. It would probably be a good idea if you don’t take on these ones. We don’t want to put you at risk.’

‘Good practice for me,’ I said.

‘You’re quite right,’ John said. He stiffened. ‘Here they come. Weapons.’ ‘Coming,’ Gold said.

The demons materialised at the entrance to the alley, about fifty metres away. There were about twenty giant insects altogether. Ten were spiders that had poisonous fangs. Another five or so were cockroaches that would bite at anything within reach, releasing their venomous saliva. Another five were beetles that sprayed toxic green slime out of their back ends. Their jointed legs clicked on the concrete. Each must have been nearly three metres long and two high. They were huge.

‘God, I hate these things,’ I said.

‘You go berserk if there’s a tiny cockroach in your shower, and I have to kill it for you every time,’ John said, teasing. ‘You won’t even kill a little cockroach with a minuscule bolt of chi.’

‘I’ll kill bug demons with a big bolt though,’ I said. ‘But you know physical is the way to go with these things.’

‘Weapons,
now
,’ John said sharply. ‘My Lord,’ Jade said.

My sword appeared in front of me. I nodded to Jade and picked it out of the air. Michael took the White Tiger. The Shaolin Master summoned his staff. Meredith also had a sword, a long straight tai chi-style weapon. John raised his Celestial Seven Stars sword; it was enormous, nearly six feet long, and he carried it without difficulty. Jade and Gold didn’t need weapons. Jade’s claws were razor-sharp and deadly. Gold’s whole body was a lethal hammer of stone.

‘Make your sword sing, Emma,’ John said. ‘We’ll see if we can’t blow them up before they’re too close.’

The demons were about ten metres away. I pushed some chi into the sword and made it sing.

‘Oh no, Lord Xuan, you didn’t give her
that
sword, did you?’ Meredith said over the noise. ‘I was hoping it didn’t survive the Attack.’

The demons kept coming. The pinging ring of the sword covered the sound of their feet clicking on the concrete.

They kept coming. They were nearly five metres away.

‘Give up, Emma, it won’t work,’ John said over the noise.

I stopped the sound and my ears rang in the sudden silence. The insects stopped.

‘Me on point,’ John said. ‘Liu, Meredith, beside. Jade, Gold, Emma. Michael, Simone, behind. Now.’

We quickly moved into position, a V-shape, with John at the top and the children behind us.

The insects hesitated.

‘I will spare you if you turn,’ John said loudly.