Red Phoenix (26 page)

‘It seems,’ John said, ‘that your wife is the sister of my Lady.’

Leonard was bewildered. ‘Emma?
You’re
the Dark Lady that everybody’s been talking about?’ His face
cleared. ‘Oh my God, Emma. Of course. I didn’t know.’ He looked from John to me and he grinned broadly. ‘What an amazing coincidence.’

‘Leonard,’ Jennifer said as Leonard charged over to pull me up and give me a huge hug, ‘what
are
you talking about? Emma is just the nanny, to this man from Hong Kong.’

‘No,’ Leonard said, ‘Emma’s the Dark Lady of Lord Xuan Wu, sworn to marry him when he returns. Didn’t you
know
?’ He grinned widely at me. ‘I hear you can throw fireballs, Emma, you must show me. Come into the backyard. The boys have to see this.’ He saw Simone sitting in Leo’s lap. ‘Is that who I think it is? Princess Simone?’ He saw Leo.
‘And
the Black Lion. My, but the house is fairly bursting at the seams with notables today.’

‘Now hold on a minute!’ I shouted, pushing Leonard away. I studied him closely. Nope, perfectly normal human. ‘What the hell is going on? How come you know all this, Leonard?’

‘I told you this was to stay in the office, Leonard,’ Jennifer said fiercely. ‘I want none of this business brought home.’

‘It was your idea to have Emma over, dear,’ Leonard said. ‘Didn’t you
know
she was the Dark Lady?’

Jennifer looked daggers at me. She was ready to rip my throat out.

‘She has her singing sword, Leonard,’ John said. ‘You may see it after all.’

Leonard gasped. ‘Could I? Please, my Lord, I’ve heard so much about it.’

John gestured, and Leo popped Simone out of his lap. She went to John and held his hand. Leo went out to the van.

‘I cannot believe that my own sister-in-law is the promised of the Dark Lord. I always knew you came
from an exceptional family, Jen,’ Leonard said. ‘Come on out to the yard. I really have to see this.’

We all tramped out to the garden. Leonard gestured for us to sit and we did. Leo came out the back door, sat, and placed my sword on the table in front of him.

The boys chased each other through the yard, obviously no longer wanting the swings now that Simone didn’t. They ran inside, both banging the door as they went through it.

‘May I play on the swings again, Mrs Black?’ Simone said.

‘Call her Aunty Jen, Highness,’ Leonard said. ‘Dear God, what an honour. Call me Uncle Leonard. Go and play if you like, Princess, the house is yours.’

Simone hesitated. I smiled reassurance, and she went to play.

‘How come you know all this, Leonard?’ I said.

‘He’s my London solicitor,’ John said. ‘The firm of Black and Black has handled my affairs for, what…?’

‘Nigh on two hundred years, my Lord,’ Leonard said. ‘I’m about the sixth in the line to handle the Dark Lord’s affairs here.’

‘What about Gold?’ I said.

‘Gold is a recent acquisition, you know that, Emma,’ John said, then his face went strange. He pulled Gold out of his pocket and put him on the table. Gold had made himself about a centimetre long.

‘Your people made a huge mistake, Black,’ Gold said in his usual voice. ‘The Dark Lord’s Kensington house hasn’t changed hands in a hundred and fifty years. It’ll take me ages to fix that.’

‘We thought he’d never want to sell it,’ Leonard said, looking around for the source of the voice.

‘Permission to stay in True Form for just a
little
longer, my Lord,’ Gold said. ‘And if you could put me in the sun for a while, that would be delightful.’

‘Leo.’ John gestured, and Leo obliged, moving Gold to a sunny spot in the garden. Gold sighed with bliss.

‘You are extremely lazy sometimes, Gold.’ I explained for Jennifer: ‘Gold is our solicitor in Hong Kong.’

‘I don’t want to know about it,’ Jennifer snapped. Then she burst into tears.

Leonard rushed to console her. ‘It’s all right, darling, it’s just your sister. Sometimes strange things happen when you deal with Immortals, you know that.’

Jennifer rounded on me, furious. ‘Are you an
Immortal
as well, Emma?’

‘No, of course I’m not, Jen,’ I said, as kindly as I could. ‘I’m nothing really special at all.’

John made a soft sound of amusement across the table and I glared at him, then thought better of it and turned back to Jennifer. ‘I’m still just Emma, Jen. I’m just the same person.’

‘It never connected, Leonard,’ John said. ‘Emma even told me her sister’s surname was Black, but she didn’t tell me her brother-in-law’s name. It didn’t occur to me that it could be you.’

‘That explains it,’ said Leonard, his arm still around the sobbing Jennifer. ‘What a coincidence, eh, Emma? I can’t believe how honoured we are. After you marry, my wife’s own sister will be Dark Empress of the North. Unbelievable.’

‘I’m just taking one day at a time, Leonard,’ I said.

The boys charged out the back door, slamming it behind them. They stopped dead when they saw all of us sitting at the table.

‘Ah, here they are, my own two little demonic sons. Please don’t run them through, Emma, they are quite human, I assure you,’ Leonard said.

Jennifer started to sob more loudly. Leonard squeezed her around the shoulders and spoke softly into her ear. ‘Come on, dear, don’t be like that, it’s a great honour to
have a
god
in our house. Lord Xuan is about as big as you can get, Jen, and he’s going to marry your own sister.’

The older boy, Colin, screwed up his face and ran to the swing set, obviously ready to tip Simone off. Michael quickly moved between them.

Leonard jumped up, leaving Jennifer, and went to the boys. He pulled them aside and hissed angrily at them for some time. The boys scowled at John and Leo, then they looked at me with newfound respect. They both shot their heads around to their father. Then they nodded. They came quietly to the table, cowed.

While Leonard was up I sat next to Jennifer and put my arm around her. She still sobbed quietly. ‘Come on, Jen, it’s not that bad, it’s really just me.’

‘Who is this impressive young man?’ Leonard said, gesturing towards Michael.

‘Michael MacLaren. Trainee bodyguard. Son of the White Tiger, the West Wind.’ I waited for it. Yep: Jennifer started sobbing again.

Leonard glanced at his wife and then obviously decided to leave her to it. He grinned at me as he poured some tea for us. ‘Well, come on, Emma, show the boys. I’m sure they’re dying to see.’

Jennifer went quiet and watched. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes. She seemed to be okay, even interested. I nodded to her and smiled. She smiled back slightly.

‘Are your neighbours home?’ I asked Leonard, looking around. There was a high fence, but there was a chance somebody next door would see me.

‘Do it low and nobody will see you,’ he said. ‘Come on, show us.’

‘Go on, Emma, show them,’ John said. ‘Leonard is the only Black who has never been shown energy work, and he deserves to have his chance. I used to make Guy Fawkes night extremely special for the entire firm.’

‘I still hear tales, my Lord,’ Leonard said.

I rose and moved away from the table to make room for the
chi.
‘You didn’t just walk into their office off the street a couple of hundred years ago because of the name on the brass plate, did you, John?’

He didn’t say anything, just grinned.

‘Thought so.’

I generated a small ball of
chi,
about the size of a tennis ball. I floated it off my hand towards Leonard. ‘Don’t touch it; it will burn you badly if you do.’

Jennifer froze completely.

I moved the
chi
until it was near the boys. They watched it like two little rabbits frozen in headlights. I whizzed it over their heads, then reabsorbed it.

‘How much damage can you do with that, Emma?’ Leonard said, fascinated. ‘Can you blow things up with it?’

I nodded.

‘Can you show me? Could you blow up…’ He looked around, ‘…the little statue there?’ He pointed at a concrete cherub holding a bunch of grapes.

‘Are you sure?’ I said.

‘Don’t you dare touch that. It’s
mine
!’ Jennifer threw herself up and stormed back into the house.

‘Don’t mind her, Emma. She’s always been talking about how great it will be to show her little sister Emma how well she’s living,’ Leonard said. ‘And now she’s found that her little sister Emma will be lording it over
her.’

‘I don’t want to lord it over anybody,’ I said, and I meant it. ‘I just want to be her sister.’

I followed Jennifer inside.

J
ennifer sat on one of the couches in the living room, looking out the bay window towards the street. She had another tissue in her hand. She wasn’t crying; she just stared out the window.

I went in and sat across from her. We watched each other silently for quite some time. ‘I’m sorry, Jen, I should have told you,’ I said softly. ‘But the whole thing is so weird…’ ‘When’s the wedding?’ she snapped. ‘I have no idea,’ I said. ‘There may not even be one, ever.’

‘And he’s a
king,
is he?’ ‘No.’

She glanced sharply at me.

I sighed. ‘Yes. No. To tell the truth, he’s more like a god.’

She turned away. ‘I suppose I should be glad for you.’

‘You know what, Jen? I don’t care if you’re glad for me or not. Frankly, I don’t think there’s much to be glad about. But I am glad for
you.
You have a wonderful husband who adores you, two healthy little boys of your own, and a fabulous life here in England. I would
give anything to have what you do,’ I sighed at the stab of pain that went through me, ‘because I will probably never have anything as good as this.’

‘Oh come
on,
Emma,’ she said. ‘What did Leonard call you? Dark Empress? And that’s not better than this? You’ll be leading this jet-set lifestyle, rubbing shoulders with anyone you want, as much money as you want—’

‘You know what it’s really like for me right now?’ I let it all out. All of the pain. All of the frustration. All of the anger at the situation that I found myself in. ‘All right, let me tell you. I love that man,’ I pointed towards the back door, ‘and we can’t touch each other at all, because he could kill me.’

Jennifer opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off. My voice went fierce. ‘It’s because he’s not a human being. He can’t touch me. He’s going to leave both Simone and me in about two years. He’ll be gone for a very long time. Maybe more than a lifetime. He’s promised to come back for me but there are no guarantees. Even if he does come back, it will be
years
from now.’

I dropped my head. It felt good to be letting it out.

‘There is a constant stream of monsters attacking us,
all the damn time.
That fireball stuff? That wasn’t for fun. I use it all the time to kill the monsters that want to hurt that delightful little girl.’

I looked at my hands, then back up to glare into her eyes. ‘The black guy, Leo? The one you don’t like the look of? He’s my best friend. The monsters got him the other day and
cut his tongue in half.
That’s why he doesn’t talk much. He’ll die soon anyway, you know? He’s terminally ill. He’ll leave us all alone as well.’

My throat thickened. I didn’t want to be left alone; I wanted those wonderful men with me.

Jennifer’s expression started to change from anger to anguish.

‘Jet-set lifestyle? I spend most of my time teaching, looking after Simone, and doing budgets on damn spreadsheets that I hate the sight of. And all of this, Jennifer, for the love of a man who
can’t even touch me,
and will
leave me
in a couple of years, perhaps
never to return.’

I slapped my hands on my knees and turned away. The street was deserted. I pulled myself together. I didn’t have time for this. I looked at Jennifer. I don’t know why I’m wasting my time on you, I thought. And then I felt a pang: yes, I do.

I moved to sit next to her and put my arm around her. ‘Jen, you’re family. You’re the most important thing in the world to me. Please forgive me. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.’

‘Why can’t he touch you, Emma?’ she said quietly, her face expressionless.

‘It’s a very long story. That energy stuff I threw around? He’s drained. He’ll suck it all out of me and kill me if he touches me, because of the love between us.’

She snorted. ‘Yeah, right. You sure that isn’t a story he’s spun?’

‘It’s true, we have to be very careful.’ I ran my hands through my hair. ‘Do you have any idea how lucky you are?’

She didn’t say anything. She put it together in her head. She smiled slightly. I breathed a quiet internal sigh of relief. I’d done it.

‘I’ll tell you what, Jen. When his palace is rebuilt, I’ll see if we can arrange for you to see it. I haven’t even seen it myself. The monsters broke into it at the beginning of the year and destroyed most of it. Burnt to the ground. Come over to Hong Kong some time—I’ll take you shopping, go around to see the sights, take your boys out with Simone. Would you like that? We could go to some social things, charity functions. I
could introduce you to some of the big names in the movie industry, things like that. We could have fun, and now you know about John—Lord Xuan, I mean—I can let my hair down. I can take you places that I wouldn’t take ordinary members of the family, like our Academy, where we teach kung fu.’

‘I haven’t really had much of a chance to talk to him,’ she said. ‘I really should get to know him better. What’s he king of?’

‘The entire Northern Celestial Heavens of China. He’s also the Chinese God of Martial Arts—that’s why we teach kung fu. He also has a Mountain in China that belongs to him, that used to hold the Academy before it burnt down.’ I decided not to mention the fact that he was a Wind and a Turtle without its Serpent. One thing at a time. I rose and held out my hand. ‘Come and meet him, he’s a terrific guy.’

‘I heard about the kung fu from Mum and Dad,’ Jennifer said as we went back outside. ‘They said it wasn’t anything too exciting.’

‘I didn’t show them any
real
stuff,’ I said.

‘Can you show us?’

I laughed. ‘If you want, I sure can. And Leo has my stupid singing sword out as well, I’d better show that to Leonard.’

‘The sword sings?’

I laughed even more. ‘More like it whines. It’s really annoying. Everybody hates it.’

We went through the back door. Leonard was listening to John, rapt.

‘And then she told him to
piss off
!’ John finished with delight. ‘I don’t think anybody in a thousand years has said that to the King. You should have seen the look on his face.’

They both turned to us as we went out. Jennifer approached John and studied him closely. He rose, took
her hand and smiled kindly down at her. ‘Are you okay? You’re all right with this? I’m sorry we didn’t tell you straightaway, but generally it’s better if people don’t know about it.’

Jennifer looked from Leonard to John. ‘You’re really a god?’

He nodded. ‘I really am.’ He patted her hand. ‘Sit down. I think Emma had better show Leonard the sword before he explodes with impatience.’

‘All right…Lord Chun?’

‘Xuan. But just call me John. You too, Leonard. We are all family.’

‘You are really most gracious,’ Leonard said.

John grinned broadly. ‘This is a perfect opportunity. I would like to teach Emma something that can only be taught outdoors, and our apartment building in Hong Kong is too public. Can I use your yard to teach her? I’ll ensure that nobody sees her, but this is the ideal location.’

‘What sort of thing?’ Jennifer said.

‘A wushu technique,’ John said.

‘Kung fu. What technique?’ I said.

‘Wall running. Roof running. We may even have you flying for short distances.’

‘No
way
!’ I exclaimed with delight. ‘You think so?’

‘Flying?’ Jennifer said with wonder.

Before we did anything, I took Simone to one side and explained. ‘You did really well, Simone, they had no idea we were any different. But my sister’s husband knows your dad, and knows who he is, so we don’t need to pretend any more.’

Simone let out a huge sigh and her little shoulders sagged. ‘Did I do okay?’

‘You did really well. You did better than me.’ I crouched to hug her. ‘You’ll be fine at school, I’m sure.’

‘What are we going to do now? Can we go back to the house?’

‘Your dad wants to teach me wall running and roof running on this house, and I have to show…’ I hesitated, but what the hell. ‘…Uncle Leonard my singing sword and some other energy stuff. Do you want to show them some energy work and physical stuff as well? They’d like that.’

‘Emma, is it okay if I keep practising while we’re here? Pretend to be normal? I need to practise.’

I hugged her again. ‘You are very special. That’s a great idea.’ I pulled away to smile at her. ‘Go and play on the swings.’

Colin stayed with his father, but little Andrew went and talked to Simone. Michael rose and joined them to ensure that Simone wouldn’t be hurt.

I returned to the table. ‘How will you stop us from being seen, John?’ Although the neighbours didn’t seem to be home, there was a chance that I’d be spotted on the wall of the house.

‘Gold,’ John said loudly.

‘My Lord?’ Gold said from somewhere in the sunshine.

Leonard and Jennifer looked around for the source of the voice.

‘I will be extremely generous and permit you to stay in True Form if you can hide us,’ John said. ‘My Lord,’ Gold said.

Everything around us went completely silent, as it had when the Demon King had appeared.

‘Done,’ Gold said. ‘Most appreciated,’ he added softly.

‘How long do we have?’ John said to the air.

‘About an hour, my Lord, that’s all I can manage,’ Gold said.

‘Should be enough,’ John said. ‘But we’ll need a safety net, just in case Emma falls.’ He turned to
Jennifer and Leonard. ‘Don’t be concerned, but I need the help of somebody who can catch Emma if she falls off your roof, and she just happens to be a dragon.’

Jennifer’s eyes went wide, but Leonard grinned broadly. Little Colin shifted closer to his mother.

‘Don’t worry, Jen, her name is Jade, she’s the family accountant, and she’s really nice,’ I said. ‘Don’t think of her as a dragon, she’s just a person. John, tell her to arrive in human form and transform after.’

Jade appeared in human form and Jennifer shot to her feet with a gasp. Colin clutched his mother. Leonard’s grin didn’t shift.

Andrew and Simone were busy talking near the swings and didn’t notice.

Jade fell to one knee and saluted John, then did the same to me. She bowed from the waist to salute Jennifer and then Leonard.

Jennifer stared at me, eyes wide, then gave Jade a similar look.

‘Jen, would you be okay if Jade turns into a dragon?’ I said. ‘She’s only three metres long, and I can assure you that she’s perfectly harmless.’

Jade fell to one knee in front of Jennifer. ‘I swear I will not hurt any member of your family, my Lady. I am a sworn servant of Lord Xuan and Lady Emma. By your leave, Lady Jennifer.’

John smiled quickly at me. I shot a fleeting smile back: he had her picked; that was exactly the right thing to do.

‘Go ahead,’ Jennifer said.

Jade nodded and rose.

‘I’ll do the sword first, then we can work on the technique,’ I said.

‘Yes, let us see, Emma,’ Leonard said. ‘I’ve heard about this sword of yours. I want to hear what it sounds like.’

‘You’ll want to throw it in the garbage after you’ve heard it.’

I went to Leo, and he handed me the sword, hilt first. I pulled it from its scabbard, held it in front of me and made it sing. I ran it through a slow scale. Fortunately no dogs started to howl, but Jennifer put her hands over her ears and winced.

I pulled the chi out of the sword and it went quiet.

‘And that will blow up demons?’ Leonard said.

‘Low-level ones, yes,’ John said. ‘Higher-level ones are unaffected.’

Please don’t do that again, Emma,
Simone said straight into my ear and I laughed.

‘Don’t worry, sweetheart, I won’t,’ I called, and she nodded. She and Andrew were playing on the swings together. Looked like she may have made a friend after all. Without his big brother to egg him on, Andrew seemed to be a nice kid.

Jennifer glanced from me to Simone. ‘What was that about?’

‘She can talk to me silently, right into my ear,’ I said as I put my sword back into its scabbard. I gestured towards John as I returned the sword to the table. ‘Both of them can. It’s a pain in the neck.’

‘Telepathy?’ Leonard said with wonder.

I stopped at that. ‘I suppose it is.’

‘Of course it is,’ John said. ‘That’s what it’s called, anyway. The Monkey King once went to the CIA in America and told them he could do it. He demonstrated it to them. They were sure they had a new secret weapon. The little bastard played along with them, pretending to be American and patriotic, the whole works. When they started field testing, he destroyed the entire testing centre and left the place in a complete shambles.’

‘Next time he challenges me I will take him up on it,’ Leo lisped softly, almost to himself.

‘I would like to be there. I think you could take him, if he didn’t have that blasted staff of his. Enough storytelling. Emma,’ John said more briskly, ‘let’s get you wall running.’

He gracefully pulled himself to his feet and gestured for me to accompany him to the house.

Leonard, Jennifer, Colin and Jade all followed at a respectful distance.

John stood back from the house about three metres, then ran to it, took three steps up the wall, leapt off somersaulting, and landed on his feet where he’d started, facing the house. He gestured to me. ‘Now you.’

‘You told me that was the most useless move in the entire suite,’ I said. ‘While you’re in the air, your opponent has plenty of time to set themselves up to hit you hard when you land.’

‘It’s not a practical move by itself,’ John said, tying his hair back. ‘It’s a base for working with more complicated stuff.’

‘Oh, okay.’ I did the same thing; I stood a couple of metres away, ran to the wall, took a couple of strides up the wall, flipped, and landed on my feet.

Jennifer’s family all stared at me with awe.

‘Spectacular but useless,’ I said with a shrug.

John waved for me to move back. He turned so that he was nearly parallel to the house. He readied himself, then ran to it, took a few steps along the side of the house, and flipped off.

‘Harder,’ he said. ‘You have to remain sideways on the house. More than that I can’t do right now; you’ll have to do the rest without demonstration. Give it a try.’ He raised his hand. ‘Wait. Jade, move away from the Blacks and transform, we may need you.’