Red Phoenix

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

John held one of Simone’s hands, I held the other, and we bounced her along the street to the Science Museum. John sparkled with energy and appeared slightly younger than me, in his late twenties. He really did look like a rock star on holiday wearing his new jeans.

It felt wonderful to walk together down the leafy Kensington street on a crisp, bright London summer’s day. Michael followed, very quiet.

When we arrived at the Museum Simone dashed inside, then stopped. ‘Sorry, Daddy.’ She returned to us, took John’s hand, and we entered together.

After we’d been through just about every display, we had lunch in the new wing with its computerised displays at the far end of the Museum. The second floor housed tremendously annoying interactive musical computers, but Simone really liked them so we stayed there for a while.

‘Does she have to see absolutely everything?’ Michael asked me, weary.

‘Yes, she does. You saw Leo’s face when we let him off.’

Simone dragged us to the top floor of the new wing. Each floor was smaller than the one below, allowing us to see all the way to the ground. Two round tables with projected computer images were the only display on the top floor. Six people could stand around each table and interact with the computer.

Michael, Simone and I took a place each and played games about the future of technology, genetics and space exploration. Michael and Simone competed fiercely to see who could win the most points. John stood and watched with his arms folded over his chest; he was too fast to give anybody a fair chance and the kids had thrown him off.

John tied back his hair.

The Museum fell completely silent, then a silent noise boomed through the whole structure. A vibration shuddered from my feet to my head. Without changing temperature, the air went very hot, then very cold. Something was very, very wrong.

The expression on John’s face probably mirrored my own. Simone and Michael hadn’t felt it. I went to John. ‘What was that?’

He didn’t need to reply. A large school group were visible on the ground floor of the Museum, running around and talking loudly. A minute ago they hadn’t been there.

John was very calm and spoke softly. ‘There are about fifty of them. We need to get out of here.’

‘Why here, just after you’ve been to Paris? You’re at your strongest.’

‘They know Simone comes here every single damn time,’ he said placidly. He concentrated. ‘This is a really big one.’

‘We’re ready for them,’ I said, much more calmly than I felt.

‘I still think we’ll need some help. We’re pinned on the top floor.’

The demons were clearly audible coming up the levels towards us, talking loudly and shrieking as if they were normal children. John looked around, then gestured. ‘Fire escape. Let’s go.’

I went behind Simone and Michael and quietly spoke to them. ‘We have to move. Leave it. Let’s go.’

Michael appeared bewildered, but Simone’s eyes widened. ‘There’s a lot of demons coming, Emma,’ she said, breathless.

‘How many, ma’am?’ Michael said as we approached the door.

‘Lord Xuan says about fifty.’ I tried to control my voice. ‘You can hear them coming, they’ve taken the form of a school group.’

John waited at the fire escape. I moved to open it, but he raised his hand to stop me.

The demons spread out, still talking noisily to each other, on the floor below us. They were looking for us. They would be on our level soon.

Gold appeared next to John. He examined the door and smiled grimly, then put his hand on the latch and concentrated. He became completely transparent, as if he was made out of clear plastic, with his stone self clearly visible in the middle of his chest.

Michael gasped.

Gold returned to his normal human form and pushed the door open for us without setting off the alarm. He smiled and waved us through.

We went through the doors to the top of an external set of metal stairs, a standard fire escape. No stairs led further up, and I had the incongruous thought: oh, what a shame. We couldn’t do the typical action-movie thing of stupidly running up to the roof and pinning ourselves with no way out.

We quickly and carefully took the stairs down. The Museum’s back loading dock was at the bottom. It was nearly deserted; it was almost closing time. Damn. If it had been busy then the demons would have stayed away.

When we were about halfway down Jade appeared, flying over the roof in dragon form, whipping through the air. She landed lightly on the ground of the loading dock. She checked the location, her gold claws making metallic clicks on the pavement as she moved. She glanced up to us and nodded.

Gold vaulted over the edge of the railing, and splattered like goo when he hit the ground. He quickly re-formed and stood next to Jade.

A couple of Celestial Masters appeared next to them: two of the most senior Masters on the Mountain. The Shaolin Master, in his tan jacket and pants, and the Energy Master, in a plain black cotton pantsuit with white cuffs.

The Shaolin Master, Master Liu, was a tiny ancient Chinese man with a completely bald head, a long flowing white beard and matching white eyebrows. His eyes twinkled merrily as he smiled up at us. He held one hand in the traditional Shaolin greeting of a half-prayer and bowed slightly.

The Energy Master, also Master Liu, was a tall, elegant European woman with short dark hair and an intelligent, angular face, appearing in her mid-forties. She saluted us Chinese-style, hand on fist.

‘Hi, Emma,’ she called in her delightful English accent.

‘Hi, Meredith,’ I called back. I really liked Meredith, she was the only Master who didn’t give me a lot of grief about calling me ‘Lady Emma’.

‘What do we have here, my Lord?’ the Shaolin Master said as we neared the bottom of the stairs.

‘About fifty of them, only small ones, taking the form of English schoolchildren,’ John said.

‘Always knew English schoolboys were right demonic little bastards,’ Meredith said cheerfully.

As soon as we were all together, the Immortals stopped and looked at each other. Then they turned as one to face the exit of the loading dock where it met the street.

‘Goodness me,’ Meredith said evenly. ‘South Kensington is Demon Central today.’

John faced the alley. ‘Here they come, and the ones from inside are coming out as well. Attacked from both sides. Put the children and Emma in the middle—’

‘Oh no you don’t,’ I said loudly. ‘Put me next to Meredith and I’ll use energy. She can help me when I fill up.’

John opened his mouth to say something and I glared him down.

‘Permission to fight, my Lord,’ Michael said. ‘Let me at them.’

‘Let him,’ I said. ‘It’s his job.’

‘Very well,’ John said.

‘And I’m not a child,’ he said under his breath.

‘I know,’ I whispered back. ‘But both of us are, compared to them.’

Jade remained in dragon form. She sharpened the golden claws of one foreleg against the claws of the other with a metallic rasping sound.

Gold froze and concentrated, then his whole body turned into the same stuff his stone was made of: quartz gleaming with veins of gold. He still moved fluidly, even though he was made of stone.

The door at the top of the fire escape opened and the children came down the stairs. They dropped the childlike act as they came, becoming very quiet and serious, their little feet moving in unison like a zombie army.

‘Emma, Meredith, Michael, Liu,’ John said, and pointed behind him. ‘Me, Jade, Gold,’ and pointed next to him. ‘Simone between us.’ He cracked his knuckles loudly. ‘Count them as you take them. The one who destroys the fewest is buying dinner.’

‘I’ll lose then,’ Meredith said cheerfully over her shoulder as she moved into position next to me. ‘My Art is the slowest. But that’s okay, I know an excellent family-friendly pub over near Oxford Circus. The little Princess will love it.’

‘Not Western food,’ John moaned. More demons appeared at the end of the alley. These looked like ordinary European men and women. ‘You women hate me.’

Meredith and I shared a smile. Then we turned to face the demons.

‘Look sharp, Emma,’ Meredith said. ‘If you fill up, just point the energy in my direction and let go, or throw it into the ground. Please don’t blow yourself up, dear. If you do, the Dark Lord will be totally impossible for absolutely bloody ages.’

The demons moved into range and I threw balls of chi at them, making them explode with a satisfying thump. ‘You mean more impossible, Meredith.’

Shaolin Master Liu ran into the middle of the demons and cut through them with hands, fists and feet. He was so fast he was a tan-coloured blur. Demons exploded around him as he shredded them. He took the time to bounce off the wall and throw himself back into the middle of them.

‘Show-off!’ Meredith yelled as she blew up demons with a devastating destructive rhythm. She stopped using energy and went in next to Master Liu, using the tai chi moves with deadly speed and accuracy, her hands glowing with energy as she struck. The Lius positioned themselves back to back and cut down every demon that approached them.

My energy neared a dangerous level as I absorbed the demons’ chi. ‘Heads up, Meredith!’ I shouted, and shot a large ball of chi straight at her. She caught it, broke it into tiny balls, and scattered them around her, hitting about twenty demons at the same time.

Michael faced the demons one at a time and was more than a match for them. His face was a grim mask of fury as he destroyed them hand-to-hand. He didn’t shift from his position next to me and in front of Simone.

‘How’s it going back there, John?’ I shouted over my shoulder.

‘Haven’t had this much fun in a long time,’ John called back without losing his rhythm. He destroyed the demons with effortless ease; his ponytail didn’t even move. He raised his voice so that everybody could hear him. ‘Be aware, people, there are more on the way, and they are bigger than these. Clear these out quickly so that we have room to work; they are just to soften us up.’

‘Any Princes on their way, John?’ I said. ‘At this stage I couldn’t say. But I can take him anyway.’

The two Masters Liu had finished the demons around them and returned to me.

Michael used the second-last demon as a weapon and smashed it into the last one, making both explode.

Jade, Gold and John finished off the last few stragglers. We returned to position around Simone.

‘Jade,’ John said.

‘My Lord.’

A cloud appeared above us and drenched us in a brief, intense shower of warm water, washing the black demon stuff off us.

‘My jacket will run,’ the Shaolin Master said cheerfully.

‘Just take it off if you don’t like it, sweetheart,’ Meredith said.

‘Oh, please don’t,’ Jade said with distress. ‘Anyone want to dry off?’

We nodded. The cloud disappeared. A small whirlwind of warm air gave us a quick blow-dry.

‘Here they come,’ John said. ‘Nice and big. Stay very still, Simone. Michael, don’t try to take on these ones.’

‘What do we have here, people?’ I said.

‘Bugs,’ John said cheerfully.

I ran my hands through my damp hair and retied my ponytail. ‘Oh no, I hate bugs.’

‘What, the way they spray disgusting brown sludge everywhere when you smash their shells?’ John said with relish.

‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ I said quietly.

‘You can stand behind us if you like, dear,’ Meredith said. ‘You don’t have to face them if you don’t want to. It would probably be a good idea if you don’t take on these ones. We don’t want to put you at risk.’

‘Good practice for me,’ I said.

‘You’re quite right,’ John said. He stiffened. ‘Here they come. Weapons.’

‘Coming,’ Gold said.

The demons materialised at the entrance to the alley, about fifty metres away. There were about twenty giant insects altogether. Ten were spiders that had poisonous fangs. Another five or so were cockroaches that would bite at anything within reach, releasing their venomous saliva. Another five were beetles that sprayed toxic green slime out of their back ends. Their jointed legs clicked on the concrete. Each must have been nearly three metres long and two high. They were huge.

‘God, I hate these things,’ I said.

‘You go berserk if there’s a tiny cockroach in your shower, and I have to kill it for you every time,’ John said, teasing. ‘You won’t even kill a little cockroach with a minuscule bolt of chi.’

‘I’ll kill bug demons with a big bolt though,’ I said. ‘But you know physical is the way to go with these things.’

‘Weapons, now,’ John said sharply. ‘My Lord,’ Jade said.

My sword appeared in front of me. I nodded to Jade and picked it out of the air. Michael took the White Tiger. The Shaolin Master summoned his staff. Meredith also had a sword, a long straight tai chi-style weapon. John raised his Celestial Seven Stars sword; it was enormous, nearly six feet long, and he carried it without difficulty. Jade and Gold didn’t need weapons. Jade’s claws were razor-sharp and deadly. Gold’s whole body was a lethal hammer of stone.

‘Make your sword sing, Emma,’ John said. ‘We’ll see if we can’t blow them up before they’re too close.’

The demons were about ten metres away. I pushed some chi into the sword and made it sing.

‘Oh no, Lord Xuan, you didn’t give her that sword, did you?’ Meredith said over the noise. ‘I was hoping it didn’t survive the Attack.’

The demons kept coming. The pinging ring of the sword covered the sound of their feet clicking on the concrete.

They kept coming. They were nearly five metres away.

‘Give up, Emma, it won’t work,’ John said over the noise.

I stopped the sound and my ears rang in the sudden silence. The insects stopped.

‘Me on point,’ John said. ‘Liu, Meredith, beside. Jade, Gold, Emma. Michael, Simone, behind. Now.’

We quickly moved into position, a V-shape, with John at the top and the children behind us.

The insects hesitated.

‘I will spare you if you turn,’ John said loudly.

They attacked.

A spider came at me. All I saw were fangs and big black hairy legs; it towered over me. It lowered its head to bite me, its enormous fangs extended and dripping venom.

I ducked and shot through underneath it, ripping its abdomen open as I went between its legs. I spun to face it as it turned. It didn’t seem to notice that its insides were hanging out. I ducked through again, this time diagonally, and took off a couple of legs as I went. It spun more clumsily with fewer legs. It reared up on its hind legs, and the disgusting stuff hanging from its open abdomen smeared on the ground.

It fell sideways, twitched, and curled up. It dissolved into a puddle of revolting brown goo that dissipated quickly. One.

Next was a cockroach. I hated these things: their shells were a good two centimetres thick and almost impossible to crack. Its razor-sharp mouthparts quivered, bubbling with venom. I ducked beneath its head, and its mouth just missed me on the way through. I shoved my sword up into the soft shell of the joint between its leg and its abdomen, then loaded the sword with chi and sent it right into the monster, frying it from the inside out.

The smell was indescribable. Good thing I hadn’t had too much for lunch. I ducked out from underneath it before it fell. It dropped vertically and didn’t move, then exploded into black feathery streamers. Two.

Another spider. I tried to move around the side to take its legs off, but it spun and quickly followed me. The venom dripped off its fangs and bubbled where it hit the ground. Its face grew an expression of insectile shock: Michael was cutting its legs off at the other end. The spider spun to face him, and as it did I took more legs off. When it was facing Michael and had its back to me I jumped onto its back and rammed my sword right into the top of its head, through the middle of its circle of eyes.

It crashed vertically. I leapt off. It dissolved. Three.

‘Well done, Michael,’ I said.

‘Behind you!’ he shouted.

I leapt sideways and the spray of venom missed me. I somersaulted backwards and landed on the beetle’s back. I ran my sword into the gap between its wing cases and sent a blast of chi into it. Its wing cases flew open, throwing me off without my sword. I landed lightly near its head. It didn’t move, it just watched me. Then its head fell off, it folded up sideways and dissolved. My sword fell to the ground and I collected it. Four.

Only two remained. John was having some fun with a spider; he moved so fast he was a blur. He was taking pieces of leg off one at a time, quite evenly, so that the spider was still able to walk. It grew shorter and shorter.

‘Finish it, you silly old man!’ I shouted.

He grinned over his shoulder, flashed over it in a huge somersaulting leap, and cut it completely in two from above.

Liu ran his staff through the last one’s head and it dissolved. None left.

We regrouped. I was the only one panting; the rest of them just grinned at each other. Blasted Immortals, they were having a good time and I was fighting for my life. I grinned too. Damn, but this was fun.

We checked Simone and Michael. They were fine. Simone wasn’t fazed by the insects; she didn’t seem to be frightened by any demons except Wong.

‘Again, Jade,’ John said. ‘Anyone poisoned?’

Everybody shook their heads as the warm shower washed us clean.

John smiled at me. ‘Well done.’

‘I hate those things.’

The warm wind dried us off.

His smile froze. All of them froze.

‘Move Simone and Michael over near the wall and stay there with them,’ he said, his eyes unseeing. ‘This is it.’

‘Is it him?’

‘Believe it or not,’ he said, his face expressionless, ‘it isn’t him at all.’ He gestured. ‘Go.’