Red Phoenix

  I stepped back and sagged. I fell to sit on the couch, put my head in my hands, then ran my hands through my hair.

  ‘No.’ I glanced up at him. ‘Did he win?’

  ‘If he wins he will tell me. Until then he has requested that he not be disturbed, as he needs to concentrate.’

  ‘I was taking him to Paris next week, Bai Hu. He’s almost completely drained.’

  The Tiger came and sat next to me. ‘It will all be over soon, Emma, one way or another. Have faith in your Lord; he will defeat this bastard, and then you can take him to Paris. Remember…’ He smiled sadly. ‘This is the God of Martial Arts we’re talking about here. He is the best there is, even drained and in human form.’

  ‘What are his chances, do you think?’

  ‘About fifty-fifty, my Lady.’ He put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed me affectionately. ‘Would you like to take a look around the palace while you wait? Louise would love to see you.’

  I hesitated. ‘If you don’t mind, Tiger, I think I’ll stay here and meditate. Alone. I’ll just wait for him. However long it takes.’

  ‘Very well, Emma. If you need anything,’ he pointed at a small brass gong on the intricately carved teak coffee table, ‘sound the gong. A servant will come. I am nearby. Would you like tea?’

  ‘Yes, please. But right now I’d just like to be alone and wait.’

  After he’d gone I settled to sit on one of the rugs to meditate. But for the first time since I’d gained the skill I couldn’t do it. Wonderful. If I couldn’t even do this now, then I’d be completely incapacitated when he left, and I would have duties to perform. Not good enough.

  I rose and performed a Yang-style tai chi set, to set my body in motion and clear my mind at the same time. This was more effective. I had to concentrate on the moves and I couldn’t think about John. I phased out and relaxed.

  I made it. I was freed from the anguish. My mind and body moved in harmony, becoming the moves themselves. I moved the chi around very slowly and deliberately, following it with my eyes as it glowed in my hands, pure shining white.

  I stopped mid-move without losing concentration. My chi was white. It wasn’t chi, it was shen. This was incredibly wrong and very dangerous. I had my soul out there on my hands. I didn’t even know I could do that.

  I maintained the harmony and very slowly completed the set. It didn’t feel wrong; in fact I felt absolutely wonderful, glowing and relaxed. It felt like Ms Kwan was with me, filling me with complete peaceful serenity. I looked around for her, but she wasn’t there. ‘Kwan Yin?’

  ‘No, that was all you,’ the stone said. ‘You are on the Celestial Plane, where it is possible to work with shen. But even here, what you just did is exceptional. Thank you; that was a wonderful feeling. If the Turtle returns for you, you should tell him about it. I cannot wait to see his reaction.’

  ‘I’m on the Celestial Plane?’ I went to the window and looked out. I wished I could enjoy it.

  The window was high up in the wall of the palace. Gardens spread below me. They were desert gardens: red soil holding mostly succulents and cacti, with cycads and ferns. The paths between the gardens were paved with golden yellow bricks, and a climbing plant with bright golden flowers hung from a blue-tiled pavilion with a red-tiled roof. A network of ponds and fountains meandered through the gardens, joined by blue-tiled channels of splashing water. Beyond the gardens stood a very high red-brick wall, and beyond that was the desert.

  The desert was a rich tapestry of different shades of red and gold, the colours so intense they were almost dazzling. The sky was a brilliant crystalline blue, bluer than any sky I had ever seen, without a single cloud. Crinkled red mountains lounged on the other side of the wide red and gold plain.

  Brightly coloured tents flapped in the breeze. Banners snapped on top of the tents, some of them bearing the motif of a white tiger. The sun had nearly set and the tents made long shadows over the red desert plain.

  The wind chime hanging above the window made a gentle musical sound.

  Riders practised manoeuvres on the plain. They rode Arab horses, decked out with colourful blankets and flowing ribbons. The riders tore over the desert with spears and impaled pegs on the ground.

  ‘That’s tent-pegging,’ I said. ‘I did that in pony club.’

  ‘At full gallop on a pure-bred Arab?’ the stone said.

  ‘I wish.’ I began to warm to the stone. It was good company.

  I sighed. ‘This is so beautiful.’

  ‘The Mountain was even more exquisite,’ John said behind me.

  I turned. There he was. He still wore the black cotton pants and T-shirt he had worn to the meeting earlier, and appeared uninjured. His hair had come completely loose and fell around his shoulders. He smiled gently, the golden skin of his face glowing. It was all I could do to stop myself racing to him and throwing myself into his arms.

  ‘Is that really him?’ I asked the stone.

  ‘Yes, my Lady, it really is,’ the stone said.

  I sagged against the window frame with relief.

  The Tiger, in True Form, padded out from behind John. He went out the door and it closed softly behind him.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ I said.

  ‘The Tiger brought me here. He is a complete fool. It will take him at least a day and a night to recover from the exertion before he can carry us back. He is completely incapacitated. He can’t even take human form.’

  ‘I’ll have to rearrange the Paris travel plans. What a nuisance.’

  ‘I think Mercy will understand.’

  We sat together on the couch and I poured the tea. He was far too close to me; I could feel the warmth from him. His T-shirt was damp and crumpled from the exertion of battling the demon. Now he was closer I could see tears in the fabric where Wong had made some near misses.

  ‘Are you hurt? He made it through you a couple of times.’

  ‘He didn’t touch me.’

  ‘Will everyone be okay while we’re stuck here for two days? Will Simone be all right?’

  ‘Monica, Leo and Michael are minding her for us. A Celestial Master is also guarding. It’s a shame Simone can’t travel to the Plane.’ He glanced out the window. ‘But I’m sure she’ll like it when she can come.’

  ‘How old will she have to be before she can come?’

  ‘Fully grown.’ He shrugged. ‘I will know, but I will not be here anyway.’ He smiled and I became lost in his eyes. He really was sitting far too close to me. His eyes studied my face, his voice warm and low. ‘But while I am here there’s something I can do.’

  More duties to perform. ‘What’s that?’

  He reached to take my hand, pulling me closer. ‘I can touch you.’

  My heart leapt to my throat. ‘Oh dear Lord, no.’

  ‘Oh dear Lady, absolutely yes.’ He put his hand gently around the back of my neck, pulled me in and kissed me.

  I pressed hard into him. I threw my arms around his neck and dug my fingers into his hair. His hands stroked over my shoulders and down my back. He pulled my shirt free and shoved his hands inside, running them along the bare skin of my back and making me moan into his mouth.

  I couldn’t be close enough to him. The blood pounded in my ears. He breathed heavily, his chest heaving against me. His grip tightened, then he pulled away to study me, his face very intense. He glanced down and worked at the buttons on my shirt, making me tremble.

  Then he stopped and his face went rigid. A black shutter rolled up over his eyeballs. No whites, no irises, nothing. Just black.

  He shoved me backwards on the couch and threw himself on top of me. He held me down by the throat. I nearly panicked but I tried to control it; he wasn’t choking me, he just held me.

  ‘John. John. What are you doing?’

  He didn’t hear me, his face had twisted into a fierce grimace. I didn’t struggle; he could easily snap my neck. I tried to lie very still but my heart raced.

  He grabbed the front of my
shirt, pulled it upwards and ripped it off me, chafing the skin of my back. He shifted sideways slightly and did the same to my jeans; grabbed, pulled, ripped them away. His black eyes didn’t focus on me.

  He released my throat but I didn’t move; I didn’t risk fighting back.

  I touched his cheek, trying to snap him out of it. He grabbed my wrist, thrust it over my head and pinned it to the couch. He held it, grabbed my other hand, and put it over my head as well. He pinned both of my hands in one of his, his grip like steel. He breathed heavily, his eyes hard and black and glittering above mine. His hair hung like a curtain around our faces.

  He shifted on top of me and pinned me with his body. He tugged at his pants using his free hand.

  He pushed himself hard onto me and forced his knee between my legs. He moved his forearm across my throat to hold me down. His other hand held my hands above my head. I was unable to move and barely able to breathe as he forced himself on me, black eyes glittering, face fierce and terrible.

  I didn’t try to move. I didn’t try to fight him. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything. I was completely defenceless. He had me.

  When his eyes returned to normal he pulled back to study me, his face expressionless. He threw himself off me, fixed his clothes, and stalked to the window. He brushed his hair out of his face to watch the desert.

  I rose as well. I didn’t bother with my clothes; they were ruined. I shrugged off the remains and went to him. I stood behind and slightly to one side of him, leaned into him and put my arm around his waist.

  He silently leaned on the window frame, looking at the desert for a long time. I held him and waited.

  Finally he spoke, his voice very soft. ‘Did I hurt you? Are you injured?’

  ‘I’m fine. You didn’t hurt me at all.’

  He banged his palms on the stone of the window ledge, stalked back to the couch and threw himself to sit on it. He bent forward and put his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. I followed and stood over him, waiting. He rubbed his hands over his face and looked up at me. He saw me without my clothes and his face went intense again. He looked away.

  I sat next to him and took one of his hands in both of mine. ‘You completely lost control, didn’t you? Both you and Ms Kwan said that could happen.’

  He studied his hand where I held it. ‘It’s been more than three years.’ His face went fierce. ‘I should have better control than that!’ He looked into my eyes. ‘I am so sorry, Emma. I could have hurt you.’

  I squeezed his hand. ‘Will it be like that every time?’

  ‘No, not every time. But sometimes…’ He hesitated. ‘Perhaps. I don’t want to hurt you. This is such a bad idea; having a human wife has always been a bad idea.’ His voice gained a very slight edge of despair. ‘I would understand if you were to change your mind now.’

  ‘So it won’t be like that every time?’

  ‘No. But sometimes it may be.’

  ‘Good,’ I said firmly. ‘Because if it was like that every single time, it would definitely be too much of a good thing.’

  His face went blank. Then he heard what I’d said and it filled with wonder. ‘You really are amazing sometimes.’

  ‘You’re pretty damn amazing yourself.’

  I levered myself over him so that I straddled his lap, and threw my arms around his neck. I moved my face very close to his and looked him in the eyes. ‘I want to see your eyes go black again. That was cool.’

  He wrapped his strong hands around my bare waist and his face became intense. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  ‘So soon?’

  He just smiled.

  I woke with a start. Someone lay next to me, facing away. Long, black shining hair. Smooth, muscular golden shoulders. I vaulted out of the bed and nearly brushed the ceiling as I somersaulted and landed lightly on the carpet nearly seven metres away. What the hell?

  He rolled over to see me. His eyes sparkled in the moonlight as he smiled. ‘That move needs some work, Emma. You have been concentrating far too much on the energy work lately and letting the physical training fall beside the way. You are even becoming slightly soft in the middle.’

  I looked down at myself. He was right.

  He threw the covers open. ‘Come back to bed.’

  He was teasing me. He’d deliberately thrown the covers off so that I could see him. He was magnificent. His long black hair had come completely loose and fell over his shoulders and neck in wonderful disarray. He was solid muscle under smooth golden skin, shining in the moonlight.

  ‘You really need to go to Paris,’ I said. ‘You look nearly fifty years old yourself.’

  He laughed softly. ‘I’m an old man.’

  I climbed back into bed and he pulled the covers over us; the desert night was cold. I snuggled next to him and ran my hands over his strong back. He wrapped his arms around me and I felt the muscles of his back move beneath my fingers. His hands were cool, but his chest was warm. I stuck my face under his chin and he nuzzled the top of my head.

  ‘Not where it counts.’

  It became very warm under the covers. One of his hands trailed up my back and buried itself in my hair. He gently rolled me so that I was on my back and he was above me. He lowered his face to mine.

  I could tell his eyes didn’t go black, even though I couldn’t see them. He took his time.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  We didn’t shift our eyes from each other as we ate our noodles in the shade of the pavilion. The Tiger lounged under the table and noisily tore apart the haunch of a large ungulate. The fountain splashed next to us and the breeze wafted cool, moist air off the water.

  The clothes the Tiger had given me were much too elaborate for me to be at ease. The flowing golden yellow cotton pants and Indian-style long top with black embroidery had been in the way when John and I had practised some hand-to-hand that morning. But the silk slippers were delightfully comfortable, and I wondered if he could bring me some to Hong Kong later.

  The Tiger had provided John with his usual black training gear: a pair of cotton pants and jacket similar to what the Tiger himself wore in human form.

  ‘Did you destroy Wong?’ I asked John. ‘Tell me it’s gone.’

  ‘It ran, as it usually does, as soon as it saw I was winning,’ John said. ‘It really is the most tremendous coward.’

  ‘Damn,’ I said quietly into my food.

  The Tiger crunched the bones under the table.

  ‘Must you do that, Bai Hu?’ I said patiently. ‘It sounds revolting, and I’m trying to eat here.’

  ‘Sorry, my Lady.’ He picked up the remains of his meal in his mouth and carried it, exactly as a cat would, a short distance away from us. He dropped it and lounged next to it. ‘Is this okay?’

  ‘Whatever,’ John said. ‘As long as we don’t have to look at you.’

  ‘Good coming from you,’ Bai Hu said, amused. ‘You should see him eat in True Form, Lady Emma, it is a sight to behold.’

  ‘Turtles are cute when they eat,’ I said, smiling into John’s eyes. ‘I would love to see that.’

  ‘I’m not talking about the Turtle, I’m talking about the Serpent,’ the Tiger said. ‘It eats pigs whole, and takes its sweet delicious time about it.’

  John’s head shot up. ‘Have you seen it?’

  ‘No, my friend, and nobody else has either. I wonder what happened to it.’ The Tiger glanced up from the carnage of his meal. ‘It has been gone for a very long time. Does it answer when you call?’

  ‘No,’ John said quietly.

  ‘You are a very strange creature, Xuan Wu.’

  ‘I know,’ John said, still very quietly.

  Bai Hu returned to crunching the bones.

  ‘We need to go back tomorrow,’ John said. ‘There are things we need to do, and I don’t want to leave Simone alone for too long.’

  ‘I understand, John. This was more than I could have asked for. It’s more than I ever expected.’ I took his hand. He put his
other hand on top. I became lost in his eyes. ‘Thank you so much, Tiger.’

  The Tiger said something unintelligible through the meat.

  ‘Charlie wasn’t too upset?’ I said.

  John stiffened and his face went expressionless. The Tiger stopped crunching the bones.

  I ripped my hands away. ‘That bastard! You said the word of a Demon Prince was good!

  ‘That demon is one of the most disgusting pieces of scum it has ever been my misfortune to encounter,’ John said evenly, ‘and I have seen some fine pieces of work over the past two thousand years or so. He killed her the minute he knew he would lose.’

  I clutched the table. ‘She’s dead?’

  John nodded, his face still expressionless.

  ‘I am going to rip the arms and legs off that bastard, tear out his innards and feed them to him,’ the Tiger said with quiet menace.

  ‘No you aren’t, because I am,’ I said.

  The Tiger made a soft sound and I turned to look at him; he studied me intently, his tawny eyes glowing.

  I crossed my arms on the table and dropped my head onto them. ‘No. Charlie.’

  John moved closer and put his arm around me. ‘She didn’t suffer, Emma. He hadn’t laid a hand on her until he saw he was losing. Then he took her head off and ran. I was honestly not expecting it. It is the first time I have ever seen a Demon Prince go back on his word.’

  ‘We will be ready for him next time,’ I said fiercely into my arms. ‘We will get that bastard.’

  ‘Call me if you see him,’ the Tiger said. ‘Let me help. I have a score to settle with him as well.’

  ‘Very well, Tiger, we will get him together.’ John squeezed my shoulders. ‘We can’t go home for another day, love. Try to enjoy this short time we have.’

  The Tiger wandered back to us and threw himself to lie beside the table. He proceeded to wash himself, his tongue rasping over his fur. He turned one of his front paws over and licked the pads, then nibbled delicately between the toes.

  ‘Go and have a screw,’ he said between licks, his eyes half-closed. ‘It will make you feel better. Worry about the rest of the world when you return.’ He stopped licking and twitched one ear. ‘Actually, that’s good advice, and I might take it myself.’ He winked. ‘Later.’ He lazily pulled himself up, stretched like a big cat, flicked his tail and padded away.