by Kylie Chan
‘How many times has the King tried to kill you, Three?’ I said.
‘He stopped the serious attempts after about two dozen, Emma. He’ll still have the occasional go at me when he’s in a bad mood.’
‘We are a powerful partnership,’ Six said. ‘Only problem is the issue we have with being outside Hell.’
‘Let’s cut some sort of deal here,’ Three said. ‘How about we trade the stone for the Lion?’
‘No,’ Simone and I said in unison.
Six tightened his grip around my throat. ‘How about a trade of the snake’s life and the Lion’s for the little stone?’
‘You might as well kill me then, because I won’t trade my life for a child’s,’ I said.
‘All right,’ Three said, and concentrated for a moment. She began to glow, a pale blue aura that surrounded her. Her face slackened and became peaceful. The blue glow intensified and crackling bolts of electricity writhed through it. The blue glow moved, writhing up towards her head, and encircled her emotionless face.
‘Is that it?’ the Tiger said to Simone.
‘That’s it,’ Simone said. ‘Completely wiped out Daddy in True Form.’ She held out her hands and yin writhed around them. She concentrated the yin at her fingertips and launched it at the Snake Mother. It hit Three between the eyes and she was sucked into a tiny dark vortex. It grew from a centimetre across to twenty across as it absorbed her, then grew even more, to twenty-five centimetres, then thirty. Six was drawn towards it, still gripping me; he tried to move away but was sucked back, sliding across the floor. All the air in the room began to swirl into the vortex, pulling us into it as well.
‘If I go she goes!’ Six shouted over the roar of the air rushing into the yin.
‘I lost control!’ Simone shrieked. ‘Help!’
The Tiger and Martin moved quickly. Martin grabbed Simone’s hand and concentrated, and the yin began to shrink. The Tiger raised his hands, his fur all stood on end, and he generated a white blast of pure heat and light that burnt me like radiation as it flashed past me to be sucked into the vortex.
Six released his grip on me and ran out the door, slamming it behind him. I fell to the floor, blinded and burnt by the yang that the Tiger had generated. The yang disappeared into the vortex, making it shrink until the yin disappeared. I raised my head, blinded by the brilliance of the yang, feeling as burnt as if I’d been lying in Australia’s summer sun all day.
‘Is everybody okay?’ I said.
‘I nearly destroyed everything,’ Simone said, her voice full of tears. ‘I nearly killed everybody!’
‘You need some lessons on controlling that, girly,’ the Tiger said.
I heard him moving but was unable to see, my retinas burnt as if I’d been looking straight at the sun.
‘Are you okay, Emma?’ Simone said. I felt her cool hand on my head and raised it.
‘I can’t see, the yang blinded me,’ I said. ‘How is everybody?’
Simone was quiet for a moment, then, ‘Martin?’
Another cool hand touched my head. ‘It’s not permanent. Her vision will return.’ As Martin said it, my sight began to clear, like sun blindness wearing off. ‘Is that better?’ he said.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Thank you, my vision is returning.’
‘Oh fuck, Michael, no,’ the Tiger moaned. I turned to see: he was on one knee next to Michael’s prone body.
‘The Mother hit him hard on the head,’ Simone said. ‘Is he all right?’
‘Major brain haemorrhage.’ The Tiger rubbed one hand over his face. ‘He’s done for.’
I slithered to Michael and touched my nose to his face. I could see the bleeding without needing my eyes; the demon had hit him very hard and burst a large number of blood vessels around his brain. His system couldn’t clear the blood from the damaged area fast enough, and the pressure of the blood build-up was destroying his brain. He was dying.
I opened my mouth, releasing my long fangs which hinged forward. I raised my head, mouth open, and readied to bite him.
Simone’s hand snaked out and held me by the throat. She lifted me clear and stood with me, so tall that my tail only just touched the ground. ‘I don’t know what you’re trying to do there, Emma,’ she said, her voice mild. ‘But I don’t think I’ll let you.’
‘Heal him,’ I said with difficulty through her grip.
She released me slightly. ‘You can heal him?’
‘Let me go, silly Simone,’ I said. ‘I’m the only chance he has. You may not want to watch though.’
She hesitated, still holding my head high above the floor.
‘He’s going to die anyway. Let me save him,’ I said.
She gently lowered my head and released me.
‘I’m going to drain the blood out of his brain, like a shunt, and stop the bleeding,’ I said. ‘It will probably be messy and you may not want to watch.’
‘Just do it, Emma,’ Simone said, her voice small.
Michael lay with his head slightly to one side, his expression peaceful. I raised my serpent head and dropped it quickly, slipping my fangs through his skull and into his brain cavity. Blood welled around the fangs, staining his short blond hair. I hesitated as I tasted his blood. I’d never been addicted to anything in my life but I knew what it felt like; this was what it felt like. Michael’s blood was like a cold blast of pleasure in my mouth, a sweet and pure flavour full of liquid clarity, ringing with sweetness and slight acidic tones. It tasted very much like some sort of sweet, alcoholic, lemon-flavoured tea and filled my entire serpent body with a hungry, desperate need for more.
As I held down the desire to siphon all of this wonderful pleasure into me, the more logical parts of my brain were fascinated. Michael didn’t taste like a Shen; Shen blood was sweeter and fresher. He didn’t taste like a human; humans were like Shen, but not quite as fresh, more full of greenery and earthy tones rather than the heavenly sky flavour of Shen. He didn’t taste remotely like demon either; demons always tasted like a warm satisfying meal of spiced meat and bread.
I shook myself out of it. Michael was dying here, and I was meditating on the way his blood tasted. Wrong, Emma, healing time. I had to extract the blood from the gap between his compressed brain and his skull without puncturing any brain tissue.
‘Don’t touch me, this is very tricky,’ I said, my voice muffled by the blood and my fangs.
I moved slowly and with care, keeping the tips of my fangs between his skull and brain. I siphoned the blood out without drinking it; if I was to actually swallow any, I didn’t think I could control the urge to finish it all. I pulled the blood out and released it through the punctures in his skull; just a small amount, enough to relieve the pressure; he couldn’t afford to lose too much. Then I moved my consciousness into the area, finding each ruptured blood vessel in turn and repairing it. The flow of blood slowed, then stopped. I waited to make sure that no more blood was entering the cavity, and closed a couple of smaller vessels that were still leaking. I withdrew my teeth and healed the wounds in his skull and scalp. The rest of the blood would drain by itself. Only time would tell if there was any permanent damage.
I pulled my head back slightly and touched him with my serpent tongue, then immediately regretted it as I tasted his heavenly essence again.
‘I did my best. I think he’ll survive. I hope he won’t have any permanent brain damage. Damn, but that bitch hit him hard.’ I looked around; I could see clearly now. It appeared that the taste of Michael’s blood had been more than delicious; it had aided my own healing. ‘Is Gold’s baby okay?’
‘I’m okay!’ the stone child said from the vice. ‘You guys saved me! Where’s Daddy and Grampa?’
‘I’m here, little one,’ the stone in my ring said, its voice unmuffled even though it was embedded inside me. ‘Daddy couldn’t come — he can’t come to the demon side of Hell. So we came to get you out. He’s waiting for you back home, and he’s really worried.’
‘Can you let me ou
t of this?’ Gold’s baby said. ‘It kinda hurts.’
Martin swung the handle of the vice around a few times and the baby flew out of it. ‘Thanks, guys!’ it said. ‘Is Uncle Michael gonna be okay? His head is bleeding.’
‘We hope he’ll be okay,’ I said.
‘You’re a big snake, Aunty Emma,’ the baby stone said.
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Don’t be afraid, it’s really me.’
‘I’m not afraid, I know it’s you,’ the stone said. ‘You look way cool! And so do you, Simone!’
Simone smiled, revealing surprisingly human teeth in her serpent demon mouth. ‘Thanks, kiddo.’ She looked around. ‘We need to take him and Michael out, but we still have to find Leo.’
‘You go out, I’ll look for the Lion,’ the Tiger said.
‘No way,’ I said. ‘We started this, we’ll finish it. You take your son out.’
The Tiger looked down at Michael and grimaced. ‘His mother’ll kill me if he dies.’
‘Take Michael and the stone to the West, keep them safe,’ Martin said. ‘I will guide Simone and Emma the rest of the way, and meet you there.’
The Tiger grimaced again. ‘This is what I don’t like. Leaving you two girls in the care of someone that really can’t be trusted.’
‘I can take him down, Uncle Bai,’ Simone said. ‘And I won’t hesitate to do it if he messes us around. But we need to find Leo, and you need to get Michael to safety.’
The Tiger raised his head and concentrated. ‘The Generals are keeping the demons occupied out the front. You should hurry.’ He strode to Martin and glared into his face. ‘You get either of these girls hurt, and I will hunt you down and pull your shell off while you are still alive.’ He poked Martin in the chest. ‘Very, very slowly.’
Martin wasn’t fazed. ‘I swear that I will keep them safe; as long as I live I will protect them.’
‘How will you get out?’ I asked the Tiger.
‘Same way we came in, through the ventilation shafts that the flyers use. There has to be one to the outside near here; all I need to do is find it. And if the worst comes to the worst, metal can cut through earth.’
He changed to a huge True Form of a white tiger at least four metres long, his shaggy head nearly touching the ceiling. He waved his nose at the stone child. ‘Come and sit somewhere on my back and I’ll take you out, little one.’
‘Okay,’ Gold’s child said. ‘I wanna go home to Daddy.’
The Tiger bent and gently picked up Michael in his mouth like a cat holding a kitten. ‘Don’t worry about us, we’ll find a way out,’ he said, his voice muffled around Michael. He glanced from us to Martin. ‘Just get your Black Lion and get the fuck out of here. Don’t worry about the demon; without its energy it’ll eventually die anyway.’
The stone child rested on the back of the Tiger’s neck. ‘Good luck finding the guy you’re looking for, everybody,’ it said. ‘Be careful, ’cause this demon …’ Its voice cracked slightly and filled with tears. ‘This demon is a real bad one. The lady demon was mean, but that man demon,’ its voice was full of pain, ‘is really mean.’
The Tiger nodded to us and left.
CHAPTER 31
‘Do you have any idea where they’re holding Leo?’ I asked Martin.
‘None whatsoever,’ Martin said, ‘but he has to be somewhere around here.’
‘Then let’s go find him,’ Simone said. ‘And I want that demon’s head.’
‘Just no more yin without the Tiger around,’ I said.
‘Don’t worry, Emma, I don’t think I’ll ever do that again.’ Simone lowered her voice. ‘I nearly ruined everything.’
‘You just need some training in the control of it,’ Martin said. ‘The Blue Dragon should help you, he is the Lesser Yin.’
‘I’ve asked him a few times and he’s always too busy messing with his companies in Japan,’ Simone said, frustrated.
We went out of the lab and into the corridor. Two stone elemental demons were blocking the way, impassive and unmoving. Before Simone or I could do anything against them, Martin held the Silver Serpent vertically in front of him, point up. He concentrated, and his bright red demon hair rose to float around his head. The sword glowed white and began to sing; not the crystalline whine that I had produced with chi, but a purer and more brilliant sound, even more beautiful than Simone had produced when she filled the sword with shen energy. The sound was both deep and high at the same time, a perfect harmonious chord that made the air ripple around it. The ripples hit the demons and they shattered into gravel, falling onto the floor.
Martin lowered the sword. ‘It still resonates.’
‘Daddy should never have taken that off you,’ Simone said with wonder.
‘He had his reasons,’ Martin said. He concentrated for a moment. ‘Our friends are still keeping most of the guards busy. Let’s find that demon and our Lion.’
We continued down the corridor, and nothing stopped us. The bells still rang throughout the complex, and occasionally there were yells and the sounds of doors banging in the distance. The corridor was still all white, glistening ceramic on the walls, floor and ceiling. At the end of the corridor, there was a sharp turn left and a small atrium with a lift.
‘There’s no up, so we have to go down,’ Simone said, and pressed the button. She looked up at the ceiling. ‘No security cameras. You’re right, Martin, this guy is up himself. How many floors are there?’
‘Only two, it’s mostly a horizontal facility,’ Martin said. ‘Spread out.’
‘Why is that?’ I said. ‘All the buildings in Hong Kong and China are more vertical; why is this one more horizontal?’
‘Less digging,’ Martin said.
The lift doors opened and we went in. The numbers on the buttons were in English: G then B1. I pressed B1 with my serpent nose and the lift went down extremely slowly then the doors opened.
We moved into a corridor that looked completely different from the floor above. Instead of white ceramic, the walls and floor were all plain grey concrete. Five or six rusting galvanised-iron pipes ran along the corner of the ceiling from one end of the corridor to the other, with another few pipes along the corner of the floor. The floor was caked with sticky dirt, and the pipes were covered in a thick layer of dust. But the floor was only dirty in the corners; it was obviously often walked on.
Steel cabinets, each about a metre high and padlocked, with a thick layer of dust on the top, lined the left side of the corridor. Each cabinet door had a demon-proof seal, the complicated sigils painted by hand on the rectangular rice paper glued to the front.
Martin studied one of the seals. ‘This isn’t to hold demons,’ he said. ‘It is to hold Shen.’
Simone bent the bar of the padlock like plasticine and pulled it away so that she could open the door.
The cabinet was about fifteen centimetres deep and held two shelves with holes in them that looked like they were designed to hold wet umbrellas. The shelves, however, were empty. Simone closed the cabinet again, and we followed Martin down the hallway, moving as quietly as we could and listening for any sound.
At the end there was a T-intersection and we had a choice between going left or right. I flicked my tongue out, then quickly pointed left with my nose. ‘That way.’
‘Why?’ Simone said.
‘I can taste it. It went this way.’
Simone raised one hand and scraped her demon claw on the wall, leaving a slight mark. ‘Okay, let’s go.’
‘No need to do that, I can taste the way we came,’ I said.
Simone shrugged without replying.
This corridor had rooms on the left and right, each with a standard wooden door. Simone concentrated then shook her head. ‘My Inner Eye isn’t blocked down here. All these rooms are empty. They look like barracks.’
‘That’s probably what they are,’ Martin said.
We walked down the corridor, which seemed to run the length of the facility; the end wasn’t visible. I flicked m
y tongue out every so often, tasting the air, and then stopped. ‘Leo.’
‘Where?’ Simone said, and concentrated. ‘I can’t see him.’
I raised my snout and flicked my tongue again. I moved my head left and right, tasting the air. ‘Further along somewhere. It’s so faint that I can’t get a good fix on it.’
‘Is your sense of taste really that sensitive?’ Simone asked.
‘I think it is,’ I said. ‘I can taste the Generals, far away. Six is around here somewhere, hiding. I can definitely taste Leo somewhere …’ I moved my head from side to side. ‘Up ahead. Let’s go.’
We moved down the corridor, both Martin and Simone checking inside the rooms with their Inner Eyes. The taste of Leo strengthened and I quickened my pace. Leo was getting stronger, but Six wasn’t; the demon was travelling away from us as fast as we were approaching him.
‘Six is running,’ I said.
‘Leo is our first priority,’ Martin said. ‘Without his source of energy, Six will eventually die anyway.’
‘I’d still like to take that demon’s head after all it did to those stones,’ Simone said, her voice mild.
‘We can always track it down later. Emma has the scent.’
We neared the end of the corridor. An occasional vibration shook the ceiling; they were fighting above us. I quickened my pace again; Leo was very close ahead. His scent was coming from a large pair of double doors on the left, close to the end of the corridor, which turned right.
‘There he is, I see him — oh, there’s two,’ Simone said.
She threw the double doors open and we rushed in. The walls and floor were tiled with small square bathroom tiles, and the ceiling was bare concrete with a couple of unshaded neon tubes in the middle. There were two operating tables in the centre of the room, and both of them held bound Leos. Each Leo was completely identical and looked the same as when he’d been taken to be Judged eight years before. Both were lying on their stomachs, wearing pyjama pants and nothing else, their arms and legs bound to the edges of the table.