by Zelda Knight
“Because, as much as you despise her, she…” he grunted, choking on a chunk of egg, “respects you. If you tell her to stay, put, she’ll at least half listen. Me trying to order her to do anything is a lost cause.”
Sarah stood, gazing down at Brother Lieu over her designer sunglasses. She didn’t despise Li-Lang, or Lillian, as her father insisted on calling her now for some unknown reason. And she wasn’t oblivious to the fact the young girl saw her as a role model. But she didn’t do babysitting, be it in person or from a distance. If anything happened to her, she didn’t want to be at fault.
“Fine. But if she sneaks out, that’s on you. I’m just providing a temporary roof over her head.” Despite her bravado, Sarah relented.
As the saying went, it’s not like she could choose her family. The Ho’s had been “generous” enough to adopt her, a “cursed” child abandoned by her family in China to the heads of the clan. The least she could do is not get the only blood-related child of the upcoming generation killed because of negligence. She would provide protection and some more bodyguards. Past that, all Sarah could hope for was that Brother Lieu got it through his thick skull, to stop straddling two clans. One couldn't serve two masters or two ancestral gods. And his selfishness would end up hurting his daughter, as much as he tried to blame Sarah for potentially hurting their clan.
“Appreciate it,” he said begrudgingly. “But before you go, I have to warn you that you’re in for a surprise in Macau if you decide to go. Three ghosts from…”
But before he could finish, Sarah had already made a beeline for the door. She had enough of his doom and gloom sulking. She twisted the knob, murmured a mantra to center herself and concentrate her magic, and when she opened her eyes again, she was facing a large glass window overlooking the glittering lights of the Mortal Realm’s Chinatown, during the dead of night, from inside her condo.
Chapter Two
SARAH
Even I shouldn’t promise the impossible, Sarah lamented as she chugged a glass of wine, and then another, wiping the back of her hand against her mouth.
She would reapply her makeup later when she changed out of her black nightgown and into her designer outfit for the heist. But first, she had to figure out the most effective way to reign in her arrogant niece. Behind her, perched on her couch in Sarah’s fur coat and her loose vintage dress was Li-Lang Ho, who preferred to be called Lillian now, a fifteen-year-old ball of chaotic energy obsessed with the public persona of one of her exes. Fate had a funny way of reminding Sarah about her past, as uncomfortable as the latest reminder was.
Sarah didn’t know what was worse, that she finally gave into Brother Lieu’s request or the fact she was enjoying the company. Because as much as the girl seemed intent on ruining her clothing or blasting the face of Toshiyuki onto every TV in her condo, she at least brought some life into her mausoleum of a home. She never had visitors over, be they family or friends with benefits.
There were just too many associated risks with allowing most of the people in her life inside. She wondered if this was the closest, she’d ever get to the experience of raising a child, however brief? Sarah had wanted kids back when she was young and naïve, not understanding how huge a liability they would be in her line of work. She couldn’t handle the responsibility and commitment expected between lovers, so how in the world could she ever handle a child? It seemed impossible.
I’m barely going to survive this last hour with Li-Lang before I’m on my way to Macau, she thought ruefully as a familiar voice drifted from her widescreen ultra-HD plasma TV.
Toshiyuki. He had been the youngest of her lovers, with the appearance of a twenty-one-year-old, even though he had reached the age needed to gain immortality at least a decade ago. In his radiant white prince suit and cotton candy-colored hair, with an assortment of childish stickers plastered on his military hat and bubble gum pink nails, it was hard to see what Sarah had seen in him back then.
But under all his stage makeup and bubble-gum persona was a gentle soul that made her laugh and made her feel free. That was until he tried to tie her down like the others and rocketed to superstardom in Japan and parts of Asia, as they naturally drifted apart under the weight of her rejection and his newfound fame.
“Can you turn something else on? For goodness’ sake, Li-Lang, you can’t be on your phone, listening to music, and possibly watching that concert recording at the same time? And shouldn’t you be into K-pop like everybody else these days? Didn’t Visual...what the hell was it called? Didn’t Visual Kei die like twenty years ago? Get with the times…” Sarah chided her as she finished cooking a homemade stew, the last of the dishes she was leaving behind for Lillian to eat.
Toshi had explained all the eccentricities of the Japanese idol and street fashion scenes to her ages ago. But Sarah had forgotten most of it long ago.
“Lumière is Oshare Kei, Aunt Bijoux! It’s a sub-sub-culture. And not everything popular out of Asia is K-pop. That’s so stereotypical,” Li-Lang corrected her obnoxiously, twirling a long lock of her thick black hair.
She was like a walking teen stereotype, and yet she was judging Sarah's limited knowledge of commercialized popular Asian culture? Her niece’s attitude was already getting on her nerves, and with how short of a temper her brother had, she knew why their relationship was virtually nonexistent.
“Well, can’t you find anything or anyone to be obsessed with other than Toshiyuki? He’s not what he seems you know; none of those idols are. No reason to be that devoted to a fantasy,” Sarah scoffed as her little nuisance of a niece rolled her eyes so hard, she worried they’d disappear inside of her skull.
“And betray Toshi? Never!” Li-Lang looked aghast at the thought of devoting herself to anyone else but her number one idol.
If she knew her father wouldn’t flip out, she’d smack some sense into her bratty little head. Who disrespected their elders as openly as she did when she was their little “princess,” and not an unwanted burden like Sarah was as a child?
She liked to pick fights because she was bored, emotionally neglected, and hormonal. All three things Sarah could understand on a personal level. But she really needed to direct her energies into something positive, like successfully robbing a bank or running a profitable gambling business.
“You know, you should really find something worthwhile to dive into, like cultivating your magic, or running a legit business above ground to get your feet wet. Anything! Useless women get shunned or married off in our clan. You know this. I’ve told you before, countless times.” And it was true, not only for the Solar Rabbit Clan, but also the Lunar.
Wasn’t part of the whole debacle with their ancestral god over his most costly tribute, Xiuying’s hand in marriage, the Lunar Rabbit Clan’s eldest daughter? They not only coveted the Eternal Lunar Pearl but were selfish enough to deny the god who would have given it to them easily if they only obeyed.
But as much as that was the way of the world, she didn’t want that for Li-Lang. Her father didn’t give a damn, and who knew where her mother fled after she got from underneath his ironclad grasp. But she should give a damn about herself. Li-Lang only really had herself to rely on in this world. So many, be they friend, family, or foe, could and would easily betray her if she wasn’t careful. And being the only child of the third generation, as of now, meant Li-Lang was a walking target.
“Aunt Bijoux?” Li-Lang called out to her over the sound of the music surely blasting from her earbuds. “Where’s the ‘Las Vegas of Asia’ at? Isn’t that where you’re going?”
She was obviously trying to change the topic, but Sarah let her. The story of Xiuying’s fate, almost forced into marriage and now forced into hiding, had scared the crap out of the girl. But Li-Lang wasn’t the type to take the initiative if she didn’t immediately have to when it came to bettering herself.
“Nowhere you need to know right now,” Sarah groaned, marching over to her niece.
She snatched her wireless earbuds out of her ears with t
he tug of her magic and forced her to sit up straight. Her black heels looked comically large on her feet, and a part of Sarah was a little mortified since the rest of her clothing was loose but complimentary on Li-Lang’s body.
Are my feet really that damn big? Anyway, focus! Now’s not the time to get roped in by her theatrics.
Sarah took a deep, calming breath and said, “Now, here are the ground rules. You’re to stay inside this condo until I return. Do not speak to strangers or open that door. There are...forces out there that mean you harm. This is for your protection. Ordered by your father, okay?”
“Why? Sounds boring.” Li-Lang didn’t whine, but looked like she was on the verge of doing so.
Why am I even negotiating with a child?
Sarah wanted to just run upstairs, slip into her gown, and pass through the portal she’d been perfecting to teleport her to Macau while preserving most of her magic. Sarah didn't have time to play “auntie” with her.
But deep down, she knew why. As much as she was a brat and her father an ass, she didn’t want to see the girl get seriously hurt by leaving Chinatown. The possibility of the Solar Rabbit Clan infiltrating their regular defenses was next to none, but Sarah didn’t want to underestimate their will to do them harm.
Clapping her hands, Sarah opted for a quicker route–bribery. A lazy grin crept across Sarah’s face. She could see her niece visibly caving, eyes widening into saucers as she tried to count the cold hard cash that appeared in Sarah’s hand. And more was coming if she kept her promise.
To an overly sheltered, and immeasurably spoiled fifteen-year-old cut off from her only source of income, Sarah was presenting her with a fortune. But to the acclaimed jewel thief, it was mere pocket change. Not enough for her to even take a job if it was offered as a down payment. Then she clapped, and it disappeared in a puff of smoke like a stage magician’s cheap parlor trick.
“Hey!” she whined, back to her bratty tone and ways. But Sarah had piqued her interest, which was good enough for her.
“Nuh-uh! You’re not seeing a dime unless you promise to at least not leave Chinatown.” Li-Lang glowered up at her, but she could already see the math going on behind her eyes. She knew for a fact her brother had cut her off, and she surely wanted more of Toshi’s merch, which meant Sarah had the upper hand.
“So, do we have a deal?”
Chapter Three
SARAH
No matter how many times she gazed up at it, there was nothing quite as dazzling as Macau’s sparkling skyline at night. She’d emerged on the other side of the world through a doorway in the shadow of the gambling district’s dazzling lights. The Grand Lisboa, the tallest building in sight, was magnificent in of itself, with its mind-numbing number of floors and bustling crowds, architecture reminiscent of a lotus flower.
The narrow streets of the rest of the peninsula were an eclectic mix of Chinese and Portuguese architecture, and they made one dizzy if they stared upward towards the night sky. But an architectural tour wasn’t why Sarah teleported halfway around the world; she could gaze at many beautiful cities if she wanted to. She was in search of something even more magnificently magical—a doorway into the Realm of the Divine, near the border where Ju-long awaited.
Sarah glided through the crowds inside the Grand Lisboa’s hotel, restaurant, and casino unseen. All the guests spoke a mixture of Mandarin, Cantonese, English, and even a sprinkle of pure Portuguese here and there. But it’s when she heard that sweet sound of Patuá—a creole language native to Macau, part Malay, Cantonese, and Sinhalese—that Sarah knew she was on the right path.
She took a sharp turn towards the casino, trailing a couple walking arm in arm. The pair looked happy and human enough, the man vaguely Macanese—an eclectic melting pot of ethnicities native to the island—with a sharp black suit and bright red tie of a business professional. The woman was harder to pin down, with skin so light she might as well have been translucent, and a black dress that clung tightly to her thin body, adorned with white rhinestones.
As she trailed them, Sarah became surer of her hunch that the pair was her ticket to the next realm when she glimpsed their reflection in a large ornate mirror overlooking the poker tables. To a normal human, they’d look just like that, human. But to someone like her with ancestral magic freely flowing through her blood, Sarah saw them for who they truly were. With emerald robes, elongated claws, and thin pointed ears, they appeared to be two foxes disguising themselves in the human world. And to her surprise, their genders appeared to be reversed under their false skins.
Huli jing? she thought, moving swiftly through the sea of people without making a sound. The Chinese name for these deities, anyway.
That was most likely their race since Huli jing, Kitsune, and Kumiho, the infamous fox deities in that part of the world, took the form of beautiful women intent on seducing unsuspecting men all to devour their hearts or livers. But these shifter spirits, well, Sarah wasn’t so sure what race they belonged to.
They could be expressing themselves as they truly were in the Mortal Realm, or simply curious about trying on a new disguise. It wasn’t her place to decide or judge. Be they benevolent or malevolent spirits, male, female, or non-binary, they didn’t belong to their realm anymore. Which meant they were most likely looking for an exit, since they appeared rather bored.
They took one sharp turn after another, weaving their way through poker tables, games of crabs, and slot machines aimed at Westerners. Sarah kept up, but before she knew it, she’d lost sight of them. She picked up the ends of her dress and quickly scaled a stairway where she’d seen a bit of the female’s bejeweled dress disappear. But once she reached the hallways on the second floor, they were nowhere to be found.
“Damn it!” she cursed low underneath her breath, crossing her arms across her chest.
She was debating what to do next, whether to try her luck by spotting another shifter, spirit, or demon in hiding or continuing her chase. The more she thought about it, however, the more she came up empty. She didn’t have time to chase after others to find the correct portal to where Ju-long was hiding, but she also didn’t know where to go without direction. Thanks to her pitiful brother, her connections went dark before she arrived. She was walking into a trap, but the dragon mobster would not make it easy for her to find him either way.
“Sarah?” The thief spun around as if caught red-handed, eyes wide and lipstick-stained lips parted. Her name was but a whisper on the stranger’s pillowy pink lips, so delicate and all at once elegant, like the rest of his features.
She doubled back, shocked beyond belief only to run into the arms of the same man who teleported in the blink of an eye. All at once realizing who the stranger was, a ghost from her past. She spun around once more, ready to fight, but gasped instead.
“We meet again, Bijoux.” His voice was gravelly with lust, and Sarah could do little more than gulp as she stared up into his dazzling yellow eyes, his pupils’ black slits filled with a mixture of longing, fear, and regret.
“Bo Chang?” Sarah whispered his name as if saying it too loudly would be like uttering a curse. He grinned, stepping closer and closer still until her back slammed against the wall of the narrow hall.
They stayed like that; she was pinned like a rabbit caught in the jaws of a ravenous fox. His hand reached up to capture the tip of her chin, and Sarah shuddered all over. She thought she preferred men with softer hands and more refined tastes in the past, but when he slid those rough hands in between her thighs for the first time, hands so unlike his gentle lips, murmuring all sorts of naughty words she’d never heard before, her tastes changed in an instant. The duality of Bo, with his porcelain prince-like features but the spirit of a gangster, was a turn-on. But Sarah desperately needed to be turned off at that moment.
“Let go,” she demanded, though her back arched as his hand left her chin and traced the small of her exposed back.
“So soon? After we just met?” He feigned shock, though his twiste
d grin said otherwise. Was this the surprise Brother Lieu mentioned in passing, now trapped in the arms of her last regret?
Suddenly, the hallway seemed to morph, and Bo Chang with it, as if the two realms were warring for control. Various shifters side-stepped around them, some staring and others laughing, only to pass into walls. His very public display of possession was embarrassing enough, but the added pressure of his erect cock grinding into her stomach and the merging realities was too much. Sarah slipped from his grasp and under his arm, knowing full well she only escaped because he let her.
He was a god, after all, and she wasn’t using her powers. She was intent on putting a great deal of distance between them so she could focus on her mission and not on how much she wanted to hop in bed with her second ex-lover. However, before she could get too far, she felt a familiar tugging around her ankle.
Leaving so soon, Bijoux? Stay and play with me. The pearl can wait.
His voice reminded her of the sound of falling rain, heavy yet steady, soothing in its own odd way. It thudded through her mind and caused her to stop in her tracks. It was only then she noticed his black suit resembling Republic Era China, crisp and rigid. It was much like the man inside of it. He didn’t like taking no for an answer, just like Sarah, but unlike her, was steeped in various ancient traditions. Much like the one wrapped around her ankle.
Sarah tsk’ed at him as he tugged the Red String of Fate binding their souls together, attached to her right ankle and his left. The thread was worn, so thin and dull it appeared almost brown in color. According to legend, they were destined to meet, and it would never snap. A fated pair that would encounter each other in every lifetime. For humans, anyway. To her knowledge, Bo Chang had ceased the endless cycle of reincarnation during the Tang Dynasty in China. Therefore, it was only her soul finding its way into new bodies, always running into him.