White Tiger (35 page)

I leaned on the desk, facing him. ‘Sorry would be a good place to start.’

He rose and bowed slightly. ‘My apologies, Miss Donahoe.’

‘What else haven’t you told me? Things that I need to know?’

‘Probably a lot, Emma.’

‘Great. One day you’ll forget to tell me something important and you’ll get me
killed
.’ I sighed with exasperation. ‘The demon Wong—while you were on the Mountain. Do you know what he said?’

Mr Chen watched me, expressionless.

‘He suggested that I pay you a midnight visit. He said we could have years. He was right, wasn’t he? We
do
have years. He made sense. So I did.’

He opened his mouth and I stopped him with a raised hand.

‘I had my hand on your door. I don’t know what stopped me. I was so close to going in to you and getting myself killed.’ I banged the desk with frustration. ‘It was such a close thing, you know? Ms Kwan told me, she warned me. If she hadn’t told me the next day I would probably have gone to you that night. Gone right in there and let you kill me.’

He opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off. ‘And you did
absolutely nothing
to warn me! You
didn’t tell me, you didn’t ask Leo to tell me—what the hell is wrong with you?’

The anguish on his face made my heart ache.

‘You didn’t tell me that the demons might try me out. I was wandering around town blithely unaware of the fact that they could crawl out of the woodwork any minute and have a go at me.’

He looked away.

‘
And
you never told me that Ah Yat was a tame demon. She’s only a level six, John, I could destroy her with one arm behind my back! Six hundred years of hard work, gone! Enough, all right? You have to
tell me
the things I need to know!’

I dropped into the wicker chair next to him and ran my hands through my hair. The thought came unbidden: I loved this stupid man so much. And I couldn’t even touch him.

He rose and moved in front of me. He held out his hand and I eyed it suspiciously. He nodded reassurance, so I took his hand, trusting him completely. I fully expected his touch to kill me, but nothing happened. He raised me so that I stood facing him, both his cool hands holding mine.

He looked into my eyes. His face was still expressionless, a mask of restraint, but his dark eyes were glittering and I could see it all. He was close to losing control. If he did, I was dead.

He quickly dropped my hands and backed to the other side of the room.

‘It would be worth it,’ I said softly.

‘No, it wouldn’t. I love you too much to lose you.’

I froze at his words. We stood silently and gazed at each other across the width of the room.

He moved half a step towards me, then moved back again. ‘I can’t hold it, Emma. There are no more secrets now. But I must go, before I lose control and hurt you.’

I nodded and turned away. He went out, closing the door softly behind him.

I fell back into the chair. I sat for a while, then asked Ah Yat where the training room was. I went in, closed the door and performed sword katas until I dropped from exhaustion.

Leo told me later that he knew something was up, because while I was locked in the training room doing sword katas for many hours straight, Mr Chen was in the garden doing precisely the same thing, heedless of anyone who tried to speak to him.

T
he next day, by silent agreement, we returned to training as if nothing had happened. We went to the top of the hill behind the house. ‘First, generate chi,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Both of you together, we have plenty of room. Move about three metres apart first.’

Simone and I separated and generated the chi. I had about a basketball’s worth; more than twice as much as I could generate back home.

‘The lack of pollution makes a huge difference,’ I said. ‘Exactly. Now, both of you, move it as high as you can without losing it.’

I floated the chi above my head.

‘Slowly, ladies. Very gently. Particularly when it starts to pull back.’

I lifted the chi three metres, and then four metres. I slowly drifted it until I had it five metres above my head.

‘Stop, Emma. Hold it there. Do you feel it? Simone, you too, right there.’

I inhaled sharply. ‘It’s like I’m up there with it!’

‘It’s like flying!’ Simone squealed, and then screamed. Her chi rocketed back down to her and hit her on the top of the head. She crumpled.

I managed to hold my chi but watched Simone, concerned. Mr Chen strode over and raised her in his arms and brushed her hair.

I couldn’t move with the chi so far from me. I floated it back to myself as quickly as I could, reabsorbed it and raced to them. Simone was limp, her face ashen.

I took her little hand as he carried her. It was ice-cold. ‘Tell me she’s going to be okay,’ I said.

‘She’ll be fine, she’s just drained,’ he said. I hurried to keep up with his long strides back to the house.

Ah Yat was waiting for us at the front door. When she saw Simone her eyes widened.

‘She’s all right, she just needs to rest,’ Mr Chen said.

He carried her to her room and placed her gently on her bed. We knelt side by side and watched her. He stroked her hair; her little face was pale and serene. He took her hand and concentrated, checking her.

‘How long will she be out?’ I whispered. ‘It won’t be three days like me, will it?’

Simone stirred. ‘Emma?’

‘Not long at all,’ Mr Chen said with amusement. ‘She has a hundred times the talent that you do, Emma.’ ‘Exactly how good is she?’

He put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me. ‘When she is grown, she will match any demon and most Shen. I strongly suspect that she will mature to be one of the most powerful creatures in creation.’

I tried to slip his arm off my shoulder.

‘No need.’ He raised his hand, which was holding Simone’s. ‘She’s your shield.’

I turned to look at him properly. He smiled down at me, his dark eyes full of amusement, then he dropped his face to mine and quickly kissed me. I put my hand behind his neck and pulled him in for more. He closed his eyes and our lips met. We pulled back and gazed into each other’s eyes.

‘Daddy?’ Simone said.

We snapped apart and turned to her. He quickly dropped his arm from my shoulders.

She opened her eyes and smiled up at him. ‘Can we go back outside? I’m okay.’

He raised her hand and concentrated. ‘Yes, you are.’ He shook his head. ‘That was the fastest backlash recovery I have ever seen. Let’s go outside and try it again.’

After three days of work we took the afternoon off. Simone and Mr Chen hit some tennis balls on the tennis court. Leo and I played with a frisbee on the lawn. We could throw it with a speed and accuracy that surprised both of us; the training gave us skills in other areas that only appeared when we tried them.

A little brown dog wandered up to us with its tongue hanging out. It stopped about five metres away, unsure.

Leo threw the frisbee to the dog and it jumped to catch it, then ran to him with the disk in its mouth. He took the disk from it and it backed up slightly, wagging its tail.

He threw the disk again and the dog charged to catch it, leaping high in the air.

‘Good boy!’ Leo shouted. The dog ran back to him and dropped the disk at his feet. It gazed up at him and grinned broadly.

Leo dropped to one knee and rubbed the top of its head. It settled and rolled onto its back. He scratched its belly and it wriggled with delight.

I stood back and let him have his moment.

‘I wonder if he’d like to stay,’ Leo said. ‘It would be great to have a dog around.’

‘You know we don’t have space back at the Peak,’ I said. The dog grinned at me and wagged its tail. ‘But he really is very cute.’

Leo rose and picked up the frisbee.

The dog’s grin widened. Its mouth became wider and wider and its face cracked open into something grotesque and horrible.

‘Demon, Leo!’ I shouted. ‘Get down!’

Leo cast around, looking for the demon.

The dog shot a ball of flame out of its mouth. I generated a huge ball of chi and threw it at the demon, hitting the fireball and ramming both balls of energy straight into its head.

The blast knocked Leo off his feet and enveloped him in a cloud of black demon stuff. He lay unmoving on the grass, covered in the black goo.

I spun to call Mr Chen and crashed straight into him. He shoved me to one side and ran to Leo, falling to his knees next to him.

Leo started to pull himself upright.

‘Down, Leo,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Don’t move until you’re cleaned up. You’re covered in it.’

Leo fell back onto the grass.

‘Are you injured?’ Mr Chen rose again and looked around. ‘
Ah Sum! Ah Say!
’ Leo shook his head.

‘Where are they?’ Mr Chen concentrated. ‘Damn! I’ll do it myself.’

Leo furiously shook his head.

‘Remain still, that’s an order,’ Mr Chen said. ‘You know dog essence is three times worse, it needs to come off quickly. Back, Emma, Simone, give me room.’

I took Simone’s hand and pulled her away. ‘Enough?’

He nodded. He rose, took a deep breath and lowered his head.

‘No, Daddy,’ Simone whispered.

He put one hand in front of his chest and the other in front of his abdomen. He closed his eyes and his long hair came out of its tie and floated around his head.

A tiny dark cloud appeared at head height above Leo. Mr Chen took a deep gasping breath and a tornado grew from Leo to the cloud, then a wall of water crashed out of the cloud.

The water seemed to go on forever. It completely soaked both Leo and Mr Chen, and the wind whipped it around and doused me and Simone with the spray too. I tasted the water as it blew into my face: salty.

Then the whole thing stopped as if it had never happened. Mr Chen sagged to his knees on the grass. Simone shook my hand free, ran to him and knelt next to him. ‘Are you okay, Daddy?’

‘It’s gone, Leo,’ he said.

Leo sat up. He raised his arms and checked them. He touched his face.

Mr Chen gasped for breath. ‘Did you get any in your mouth?’

‘No, sir,’ Leo said. ‘I’m fine.’

Mr Chen nodded. ‘Good. Are you injured?’

‘No, sir. Emma destroyed the demon before it could hurt anybody. She was terrific.’

‘How did it get in?’ I said.

Mr Chen didn’t get up from the grass. ‘It should not have been able to. I have been building the seals on this place for centuries; they are some of the most effective in existence. The dog demon must have had very powerful assistance to break through.’

We all shared a look. Simon Wong.

‘Are the seals blown now?’ I said.

‘No. This one was not big enough. It was just a test. But we will have to be very vigilant; the next one will probably be larger.’

‘Where did my chi go?’ I said. ‘It hit the demon and disappeared, but I’m not drained at all. In fact I feel three times stronger.’

‘The chi combined with the demon’s energy and fed you. That’s what happens when you destroy a demon with chi; you absorb its energy.’

‘So that’s what the chi’s good for,’ I said. ‘I feel great.’

‘We all need to go back to the house and dry off,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Leo, I need your help. I’m very drained.’ Leo put Mr Chen’s arm around his shoulder. ‘Will you be okay?’ I said.

‘I’ll be fine. I just need to go back and sleep for a week.’

I had a sudden wonderful idea. ‘Stop, Leo.’ ‘What?’

I generated a ball of chi and held it in front of me. ‘Take it.’

Mr Chen glared at me. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Take that back immediately.’

I moved the chi closer to him and his eyes widened. ‘No, Emma! Take it back! Quickly!
No
!’

Leo dragged Mr Chen a few steps away from me. I understood, and reabsorbed the energy.

Mr Chen sighed. ‘That was an extremely foolish thing to do near me in this state. Never, ever try anything like that again, Emma.’

‘Sorry,’ I whispered.

‘You’re a damn fool sometimes, Emma,’ Leo said. He helped Mr Chen towards the house.

I followed them, head bowed, Simone alongside me.

‘What was all that about, Emma?’ she said.

‘That was just me being a complete idiot, Simone.’

Ah Yat met us in the doorway with a pile of towels and scolded us all for getting the carpet wet.

‘You lot all go outside and do something quietly this afternoon,’ Mr Chen moaned. ‘I need to sleep.’

Leo and I took Simone outside to play. She chatted to her stuffed toys and we sat on the grass and watched her little tea party.

‘So dog demon stuff is more poisonous, Leo?’ I said.

‘Yep.’

‘And you’d be poisoned if you had it in your mouth?’

‘I should have told you,’ he said, sheepish.

‘Nope,’ I said. ‘I knew that the black stuff has to come off, but he didn’t tell me that dog demons were worse. How long can you have it on your skin before it kills you? I know it starts to burn after only a few minutes.’

‘Three, four hours completely covered in it like I was and you’re dead,’ Leo said. ‘That was great what you did with the energy.’

‘No, it wasn’t, it was stupid.’

‘I mean destroying the demon. That was great. It was a good idea to try to give him your energy too, but you know he can’t take it.’

‘It was probably only a tiny amount for him anyway. He must have thousands of times the energy store that I do.’

‘Sixty thousand,’ Simone said without looking around. ‘That’s what Daddy says anyway.’

‘Sixty thousand? Most of the time he seems to have a similar amount to me when I look at him.’

‘He is running on empty all the time,’ Leo said. ‘He’s completely crazy.’

‘Sixty thousand times mine,’ I said. ‘I wonder what he could do with his chi.’

‘He uses shen and ching energy sometimes too,’ Simone said. ‘But he hasn’t done any of that in a long time, he’s really drained.’ She turned to us and glared. ‘He won’t tell me about ching. He says I have to wait until I’m bigger.’

Leo glanced at me. I tried to describe ching without giving too much away in front of Simone. I pointed at my head. ‘Shen. Spirit.’

He nodded.

I pointed at my abdomen. ‘Chi. Breath of life.’ He nodded again.

I indicated lower. ‘Ching. Essence of life. Grown-up stuff.’

His eyes widened.

‘That’s what Daddy says,’ Simone said, irritated. ‘He says I have to wait until I’m grown up.’

‘Well, you do.’ I grabbed her and tickled her until she begged me to stop. She leapt to her feet and ran away, then came back and ran in circles around us, yelling her little lungs out. Neither of us stopped her. She didn’t have space to run around like that back in Hong Kong.

‘An expert energy practitioner can convert one type of energy to another,’ I said. ‘In ordinary people, the ching is a limited amount, and as you run out you grow old and die. If you can generate chi and convert it to ching, you will continually replenish your ching, never grow old and never die.’ I realised the implication for Leo and opened my mouth to apologise.

‘And I’ll never be able to do that,’ Leo said. ‘Good.’

I stared at him. ‘Good?’

‘Yep.’