Demon Child (14 page)

After crying for a couple of minutes she released me and looked around, then went into the bathroom to find some tissues.

‘If he hadn’t spent that time in the cage he would be gone,’ the stone said.

‘Good. That means they really can’t see what we’re doing,’ I said.

‘Precisely,’ the stone said. ‘Now go back to sleep and there’s an excellent chance that he’ll be having breakfast with you tomorrow.’

Simone came to me with the box of tissues in her hand, sat next to me on the bed and hugged me again.

‘Do you want to stay here?’ I said.

‘No. He might come back before we wake up, and we’ll find him sleeping on the floor again.’ She kissed me on the cheek and smiled into my eyes, her own red and swollen. ‘Sometimes I’m very glad I have you, Emma.’

‘I’m glad I’m here for you.’

I kissed her back, we shared another embrace, and she went out. I crawled under the quilt, still in my underwear, wrapped it around me and closed my eyes.

I was woken by someone tapping on the bedroom door. I looked beside me: John was gone. I had a moment of disorientation and remembered what had happened.

‘Ma’am?’ Smally said outside the room.

‘Come in, Smally,’ I said.

I checked the bedside clock and sighed: 10 am. I sat up with the quilt wrapped around me to spare Smally’s modesty.

She sidled into the room and stood wringing her hands. ‘Miss Simone’s still asleep as well, ma’am. Should I wake her?’

‘No, let her sleep. We had a very bad night. One of the orphanages was attacked, and we nearly lost the Dark Lord.’ I wiped my hand over my face and through my tousled hair. My mouth tasted awful and I needed a shower. ‘What’s on for today? Do I have anything urgent right away? I need to check on the injured orphans and their carers from Tiger Village.’

‘I just received a phone call from Lord Bai Hu. It’s his Number One son’s wedding today, ma’am,’ Smally said, obviously anxious, ‘and both you and Miss Simone are supposed to be there in less than an hour. He said people are handling Tiger Village and not to worry about it, but to —’ She winced. ‘He said things I can’t say, ma’am.’

‘No, we had the investiture Wednesday, and then the wedding’s on Thursday … isn’t that tomorrow?’ I said, then, ‘Holy
shit
, today’s Thursday!’

I jumped out of bed. ‘Simone! Simone!’ I ran around the balcony in my underwear and rapped loudly on her door.

‘Go away,’ Simone said from inside.

‘Michael and Clarissa’s wedding is in less than an hour and we should be there already!’

‘Oh
shit
!’ Simone yelled. ‘Oh god oh god oh god … Go!’

I ran back into my room and skidded to a halt in front of Smally. ‘I need my dark blue skirt suit, the modern Western one. Oh geez.’ I undid the rough ponytail in my hair. ‘Just pull the suit and some undies out, put them on the bed, and go help Simone. She’s the
bridesmaid
!’

I charged into the bathroom and shut the door in Smally’s face, then opened it again. ‘Tell Simone that if she’s ready first to go without me.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Smally said, completely bewildered.

I was ready before Simone, and went in to find her in her dress and make-up with Smally doing her hair.

‘How much time do we have?’ she said.

‘I called Michael. They’re waiting for us, but the church will throw them out if they don’t start within twenty minutes of their time slot.’

‘So that gives me …?’

I sighed. ‘Yeah. Now. Clarissa’s waiting for you in the bride’s prep room, so they can start as soon as you’re there.’

‘Close enough, Smally,’ she said, and stood. She put her hand out to me and her eyes unfocused. ‘Okay.’ She nodded. ‘Just finding you a spot to faint.’

‘Oh, thank you very much.’

She took my hand and the world spun around me.

I fell onto my back and my head hit the wooden floor with a crack. I looked around. I was in a small wood-panelled room with a low
ceiling and a demon had just dropped me. Two huge demons in human form were backing away from me towards the wall.

I lifted my head, still stunned from the impact, and saw Michael and Simone advancing on them, their expressions full of menace. They generated identical balls of shen energy and threw them at the demons to destroy them at the same time; obviously they were coordinating telepathically.

Simone knelt next to my head. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. Has it started?’

‘They’re halfway through.’ She glanced up at Michael. ‘Go back. I’ll be along when I’ve checked her.’

‘You can’t just leave the wedding halfway through!’ I said. ‘What did people say when you ran off like that?’

‘All the humans are frozen, and we’re the only Shen apart from Uncle Bai and Leo.’ She put her hand on my forehead and concentrated. ‘You’re fine, but you’ll have a lump the size of a grapefruit later.’ Her healing energy moved through the back of my head, as cool and fresh as her father’s. She looked over her shoulder. ‘I need to go. Uncle Bai can’t hold them much longer without them realising that something happened.’ She turned back to me. ‘Come out when you’re feeling better, okay?’

‘I’m okay now.’ I raised my hand and she helped me to stand. I had a moment of dizziness and then nodded. ‘I’m good. Let’s go.’

We walked out of what had obviously been the bridal preparation room. Everybody in the church was frozen. Simone went to the altar, took her bouquet from Leo and stood in position next to Clarissa. Clarissa had shed the wheelchair and was standing with the aid of crutches next to Michael. We’d had concerns that she wouldn’t make it up the aisle on the crutches, but she’d been adamant. I felt a thrill of joy for her because she’d clearly succeeded.

‘Everything good now?’ she said.

‘Sorry, Clarissa, all fixed. They tried to kidnap Emma,’ Simone said.

Clarissa looked back at me and I raised one hand to indicate that I was okay.

Simone nodded to the Tiger, who was sitting in the front row next to Clarissa’s parents. ‘Let them go.’

Everybody let their breath out at once. The minister continued his speech as if nothing had happened. I crept up the side of the church and slipped into the back pew to sit. A couple of people nearby glanced at me without interest then turned back to the service.

Thank you
, I said to the stone.

I love how they keep forgetting that I’m here
, the stone said.
But in this case it wasn’t me. Both Simone and Michael sensed the demons and dropped everything to help you. It’s a good thing the Tiger was here, otherwise this wedding would be the talk of the newspapers
.

I sat back to watch, the lump on the back of my head beginning to pound. I used a small amount of energy to block the pain.

It was a beautiful ceremony. The church was decked with white and pink flowers, matching Simone’s bridesmaid’s dress. Clarissa’s dress was long and full, detailed with antique lace that highlighted her perfect fair skin and shining black hair. Michael wore a standard black Western-style tuxedo, but he’d left his hair blond and in a short ponytail. His expression was full of adoration as he spoke his vows, and his voice echoed through the church.

Leo stood next to Michael in a matching black tux, glowing with pride. Simone’s smile was wide and her eyes glittered with unshed tears.

John appeared next to me in the pew wearing his black Western suit, shirt and tie. Nobody noticed his arrival. He took my hand in his and I leaned into him, and we silently watched the ceremony together until he dozed off on my shoulder. I had to wake him when the ceremony was finished and we all stood to watch the married couple leave.

We followed them outside, and Leo opened the limo door for Clarissa and Michael. When the couple were inside, Simone spoke to them through the door and they smiled and nodded in reply. Clarissa took Simone’s hand and squeezed it, then Simone closed the car door.

The Tiger gestured for John and me to join him and Simone in the other car, and pulled himself in behind the wheel.

‘Where’s the reception?’ John said, taking the front passenger seat.

‘The hotel in Western. At least it’ll have seals and reasonable protection,’ the Tiger said. He growled with frustration. ‘Clarissa’s
stupid family had to have the goddamn Christian fucking wedding with all the trimmings, and this church wouldn’t let me come in and do a fung shui thing to set seals on it. Her parents even objected to me,’ he hesitated, then said with emphasis, ‘
me
taking the second parking spot so we can follow the bridal car back to the reception and make sure they’re all okay.’

‘What, they treated you like an ordinary human instead of a Celestial Emperor?’ John said with amusement.

‘Totally unacceptable,’ the Tiger said. He glanced into the back seat. ‘You okay, Emma?’

‘Yeah, they didn’t have a chance to do anything.’ I patted Simone on the hand. ‘Thanks.’

‘I’ll only be able to stay long enough to pay my respects,’ John said. ‘Then I have to pull Leo out to plan the evacuation of the orphanages. I need to find somewhere safe on the Earthly to put them.’

‘I heard about that. Didn’t you have guards posted at Tiger Village?’ the Tiger said.

‘Guards are completely useless against a rocket-propelled grenade,’ John said. ‘They had a human stand outside the compound, shoot the grenade through one of the second-storey windows, then go to ground. We were lucky: most of the children had moved from that particular building after the village was evacuated, but we still lost two in the blast. After the grenade went off, we searched and didn’t find any demons so we thought they’d gone. I summoned some rain to put the fire out, and I’ll be damned if they didn’t do exactly the same thing again and take most of us out.’

‘Holy shit,’ Simone said softly.

‘You should have seen that coming, Ah Wu,’ the Tiger said as he drove down the steep Garden Road towards the main five-lane highway that edged the harbour.

John ran his hand over his face. ‘I know. The Snake would have seen it. The Turtle’s a complete imbecile. Once again the Jade Emperor saved many lives with a single simple command. But the demons are using humans more and more to interfere with our ability to pick them, and I should have anticipated it.’

‘We need to get that Snake out,’ the Tiger said. ‘I miss your brains, and I’m glad we have Emma.’

John sighed with feeling. ‘Pao wanted to keep me for seventy-two hours. The Jade Emperor had to intervene to let me out.’

‘That long? Why?’ Simone said.

‘Because children died in my care.’

‘He doesn’t give a damn about the kids — he just wants to cause trouble.’ The Tiger left the five-lane road and entered an overpass that would take us to Western District. ‘Every time one of us lands in Court Ten he does his damnedest to get in our way. One day I am going to punch that asshole square in the face. Let me see if one of my hotels or something in Europe can take them.’

‘The demons are in Europe too. Do you own a hotel in Australia or America?’ I said.

‘I have a family-style resort in North Queensland in Australia, would that do?’

‘Perfect,’ I said.

‘It’ll cost you putting up a bunch of kids there. They’ll bring it down from five stars to four,’ the Tiger said. ‘Ah Wu.’ He looked sideways at John. ‘Ah Wu! Wake up.’

John jerked awake. He and the Tiger went quiet and the car filled with the background buzz of telepathic communication.

‘Hey!’ I said.

They ignored me.

‘God, they’re rude,’ Simone said.

‘No! And that’s final!’ John said.

Let him do it
, the Tiger said to me.
It wouldn’t hurt you and it would do a fucking lot of good for him
.

‘Do what?’ I said.

‘Tell me,’ Simone said.

‘No,’ John said.

Stick that massive turtle dick up you. You should see that thing — it makes me look under-endowed. Every chick who’s ever been fucked by a turtle has said it’s a transcendental experience, even better than me. I’ve never done a female turtle — they refuse to have anything to do with me — but I’ve heard stories, and I can guarantee it won’t hurt you and it would be incredibly fucking good for him
.

‘Leave it!’ John said.

‘What?’ Simone said, becoming frustrated.

The Tiger shrugged.
Just think about it
. He switched to out loud. ‘I’ll email you the contact details of the hotel manager in Queensland.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, and attempted to change the subject. ‘Thank god for the internet; I don’t know what I’d do without it.’

‘Thank Gold for the internet. He did something of a miracle connecting the Planes,’ John said with amusement.

‘That little asshole only did it to make sure he never ran into any of the
many
people who wanted to drop him in a vat of acid,’ the Tiger said.

‘Why would anyone want to do that?’ Simone said. ‘He’s never been anything but perfectly honourable …’

The Tiger made a loud sound of derision and John choked with laughter.

‘Wow, suddenly I’m in a car full of frat boys,’ Simone said.

‘Damn straight, honey,’ the Tiger said. ‘Here we are.’ He pulled into the hotel’s driveway. ‘And think about it, Emma. It would be,’ he dropped his voice to a throaty rumble, ‘unbelievably good for both of you.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Simone said.

‘I said leave it!’ John snapped.

The Tiger opened the car door and got out, then ducked to speak to John who was still sitting inside. ‘Don’t rush this orphan business. Let Emma do it. Go home and get some sleep.’
And let your Turtle show your missus what it’s really all about
.

John roughly pulled himself out of the car, slammed the door shut and glared over the roof at the Tiger. ‘Do I have to order you to shut the
fuck
up about this?’

The Tiger glared back. ‘Try me. I can take you.’

John slapped the roof of the car so hard he dented it, then turned away to storm into the hotel. Simone and I shared a look.

‘What’s all this about, Emma?’ she said as we got out of the car. ‘He
never
loses it like that.’

‘Trust me, you don’t want to know. Suffice to say it’s something to do with the Tiger’s specialty.’

‘Metal?’ Her eyes went wide. ‘Stop. Stop! No!’ She stared at the Tiger. ‘I cannot believe you just said that!’

The Tiger waved her down. ‘I’ve had wives younger than you. Grow up.’ He turned to follow John.

Simone dropped her head and shook it. She looked up at me with disbelief. ‘Really?’

‘What your father said. No,’ I said, and headed into the hotel.

‘Stupid Shen. Animals, all of them,’ she said as she followed me.

We used the Wan Chai gateway and a cloud to return to the Mountain; the slower route was less stressful on both of us. When we arrived in the middle of the afternoon, John went straight into our bedroom. He pulled the suit jacket off and threw it on the floor, loosened his tie and collapsed face down on the bed.