White Tiger

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Leo pushed Simone gently to one side and tipped Mr Chen onto his back. He was soaked with water and covered in mud and blood. His long hair was plastered to his face. Leo pulled the hair away and tilted his head back. He felt his neck, concentrating, then put his ear next to Mr Chen’s mouth. ‘At least he’s breathing and he has a pulse.’ He checked Mr Chen’s head, turning it from side to side, then opened his eyes one at a time. ‘Looks okay, probably just exhaustion. He has a lump on his head—maybe a concussion.’

Simone hovered. ‘Will he be all right, Leo?’

‘Give me time to look at him, sweetheart, but I think he’ll be okay.’

Leo pulled the shredded black lacquer armour away and pushed it to one side. Mr Chen still had his riding clothes underneath. They were soaked with water and blood. Leo ripped the shirt open, revealing his chest, and Simone squeaked. His skin ran with water, blood and thick transparent goo. He had one large angry gash about halfway down his abdomen, and was covered in smaller bleeding cuts and blistered burns.

Leo ripped off his T-shirt and pushed it into the large wound. He ran his hand over Mr Chen’s abdomen, sweeping the blood away to see the injuries. ‘Ugh. Venom.’ He wiped his hands on his pants. ‘But he hasn’t been poisoned. Stroke of luck; I don’t think the hospital could handle a demon poisoning.’

He checked Mr Chen’s arms, stopping at the left. He gently probed it. ‘This is broken in two places.’ He ran his hands down Mr Chen’s sides and twisted his slim hips. ‘Good. No fractures here.’ He checked Mr Chen’s legs and pulled off his boots. The left foot was severely swollen and Leo gently pressed his fingers into it. Mr Chen flinched without regaining consciousness. ‘Broken ankle.’ Leo smiled grimly. ‘Don’t know how he made it down the hallway on that.’

Leo pulled his T-shirt out of the large abdominal wound to check it. ‘He’s lucky this wasn’t deeper.’ He packed the T-shirt over the wound again, then rocked onto his heels. ‘We need to get him into a hospital. He must have defeated them and then come back here to check on Simone. If we can get him to a hospital I think he’ll make it.’

He smiled sadly up at me. ‘All over.’

I sighed with relief and flopped to sit on the floor.

Simone fell into my lap. ‘Everything’s okay?’

‘I think he’ll make it, sweetheart,’ Leo said. He pulled his mobile phone out and dialled. He listened silently, then said, ‘Ambulance.’

Simone moved to her father’s head while Leo gave the emergency line the details of where to send the ambulance. She knelt, lifted his head into her lap and shook with sobs. ‘The demons aren’t supposed to be able to hurt him. They can’t. They can’t.’

Leo closed his phone. ‘The ambulance is coming. Don’t worry, Simone, I think he’ll be okay.’

‘But he’s so weak,’ Simone whispered, still cradling her father’s unconscious head. ‘There’s hardly anything in there at all.’

‘I know, sweetheart,’ Leo said, full of pain. He glanced up at me. ‘We’ll need a story. Robbery? Burglars broke in and he stopped them?’

‘That won’t explain the burns,’ I said.

‘Damn, you’re right. What do we tell them?’

Inspiration hit. ‘Kidnapped. Beaten. Tortured.’ I checked my watch. ‘We paid the ransom, we got him back. He’s only been gone a couple of hours and ordered us not to contact the police.’

Leo’s eyes widened with admiration. ‘That’s perfect, Emma. There was a similar case in the papers not long ago. It happens all the time.’ He checked Mr Chen again. ‘But the others weren’t beaten.’

‘Take one look at him, Leo, and tell me he wouldn’t have fought back. Hard.’

Leo nodded. ‘Hope the ambulance comes soon.’

‘They won’t find out about him? They won’t be able to tell?’

‘What we have here is a perfectly normal human being. They won’t be able to tell anything, provided we keep our mouths shut.’

Simone rested her cheek on Mr Chen’s bloodied forehead. ‘Don’t worry, Leo, I know what to say.’

‘I know you do, sweetheart.’

‘I’ll go with him,’ I said. ‘You stay here and guard Simone.’

Simone’s head shot up. ‘I’m going with my daddy!’

‘We’ll all go,’ Leo said. ‘I’ll ask one of the security guards from downstairs to mind the flat. They’re good about that. They can arrange for the door to be fixed while we’re gone.’

The doorbell rang. ‘It’s the ambulance men, Leo,’ Simone said.

‘That was quick,’ I said suspiciously. ‘No, there’s a hospital only five minutes away on the Peak,’ Leo said. ‘Everybody know what to say?’ Simone and I nodded. Leo went to show them in.

We sat on a couch outside the ward. Simone lay across Leo and me, her feet on me and her head in Leo’s lap. I pulled off her little riding boots and dropped them to the floor. The hack on the horses seemed like days ago.

A slim young doctor came out carrying a clipboard. He looked around.

‘We’re with John Chen,’ I said.

He came to us and flipped the paper on the clipboard. ‘Family only, please.’

We all rose. Leo picked up Simone and put her on his hip.

‘We’re all family,’ I said.

Leo glared down at the doctor, daring him to disagree.

‘Right, now you can come,’ the doctor said, unfazed. ‘The police want to talk to you as well. You’ll need to give us his ID card number and details later.’

‘Will he be okay?’ Leo said.

The doctor studied the chart. ‘He’s lost a lot of blood, and he’s very weak, but there doesn’t appear to be any critical damage. We want to keep him overnight for observation. He took a severe blow to the head and we need to keep an eye on it.’

Leo and I shared a look. Leo nodded, very slightly.

‘Can we see him?’ I said.

The doctor gestured towards the ward. ‘Don’t stay too long.’

A couple of policemen waited for us inside the ward. Leo and I shared another look.

‘Go and see him first,’ one of them said. ‘Then we’ll take statements.’

I took a deep breath and followed Leo into the room.

Mr Chen’s hair was a mess, tied back roughly out of the way. He appeared to be asleep. His left arm was in a cast to above the elbow, and a drip fed into his right forearm. Pieces of tape covered the cuts on his face. He was very pale.

Simone clambered onto the chair next to the bed and whispered, ‘Daddy.’

He didn’t move. She took his hand. ‘Daddy.’

His eyes slowly opened. He saw her and smiled. ‘Simone. Thank the Heavens.’ He saw Leo, then me. He breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Are you all right? Everybody’s okay?’

‘We’re fine,’ Leo said, moving to stand behind Simone.

‘Leo was great, Daddy,’ Simone said. ‘He killed the demons for me.’

Mr Chen glanced up at Leo.

‘House. Shape Shifter. Snake Mother,’ Leo said softly. ‘A Mother,’ Mr Chen said. ‘A challenge for you. Well done.’

Leo hadn’t mentioned Wong. I didn’t mention him either.

Mr Chen raised his good hand. Simone scrambled onto the bed and held it.

‘Careful,’ I said. ‘His foot is broken.’

‘I have stitches in here too,’ he said, pointing at his abdomen.

Simone carefully eased down to lie on the bed with her head on the pillow next to his, and held his hand. ‘I’m glad you’re okay, Daddy.’ She touched his hair. ‘You need to wash your hair. There’s mud in it.’

He smiled sadly. ‘I know. When I come home tomorrow.’

He turned his head to see Leo. ‘Take her home. Guard her well. It’s finished. Major damage—not just to me—but the attack was fended off.’ He gestured with his head towards the police and lowered his voice. ‘What are we going to tell them?’

‘You were kidnapped,’ I said softly. ‘We paid the ransom. They gave you back. You fought them and they did this to you.’

‘Well done, Emma, that’s perfect,’ he whispered. He raised his voice loud enough for the police outside to hear. ‘I don’t remember anything. They must have broken in and knocked me out. I don’t even remember what they looked like.’

Simone snuggled next to him. He stroked her hair with his good hand.

The doctor came in. ‘The police want to talk to you, Mr Chen. Then your family should go home and let you rest.’

‘Can one of us stay with him?’ I said. The doctor nodded. We all shared a look.

‘You take Simone home,’ I said to Leo. ‘I’ll stay here and watch him.’

‘I wanna stay here with my daddy!’

‘Your daddy needs to sleep without any wriggling lumps jumping on him,’ I said. ‘Go and help Leo get the house ready for him to come home tomorrow. I’ll stay here and look after him.’

‘Go, Simone,’ Mr Chen breathed.

‘Okay, Daddy,’ Simone said. ‘We’ll make sure everything’s ready for you.’ She clambered off the bed and took Leo’s hand. ‘Daddy will be all right with Emma.’

‘I know, sweetheart,’ Leo said. He moved closer to me and spoke softly. ‘Call me if anything happens. But I don’t think anything will; it’s all finished.’

I turned to see the police. ‘Let’s talk to them and get this over with.’

Mr Chen tried to pull himself upright and failed, falling back onto his pillow.

Leo grabbed the controls for the bed and raised Mr Chen’s head. I went to let the police in.

‘Don’t talk to them for too long,’ the doctor said. He clipped the chart to the end of the bed and went out.

The police glared at us but had to accept our statements. They seemed accustomed to wealthy people fabricating stories for them. They made us promise to go back and tell them more if we remembered. They also made us promise to take Mr Chen to the police station as soon as he was well enough. They wanted to catch the perpetrators of this particularly brutal crime.

The irony wasn’t lost on either me or Leo. The last thing these guys wanted to catch was a Mother.

The dim hospital night-lights and the warm hum of the equipment lulled me and I dozed in a chair next to him, holding his hand.

He snapped awake and cast around, waking me. He gripped my hand so tightly it was painful. ‘Simone!’

‘Simone’s safe,’ I said. ‘She’s at home with Leo.’

His eyes were wide and unseeing. ‘Michelle?’

My heart twisted. ‘No, John, it’s me. Emma.’

He relaxed, his voice full of warm relief. ‘Emma.’

‘I’m here.’

He shifted, trying to be more comfortable, and grimaced.

‘Are you in pain? Do you want me to call the doctor?’

‘No.’ His voice was very soft. ‘No more drugs. More drugs could push me over the edge. I don’t want to lose it.’

I grasped his hand. ‘Hold on.’

‘I am. For Simone. And for you.’ He smiled up into my eyes. ‘My Emma.’ He raised my hand to his face and kissed it. ‘Dear Emma.’

‘I’m here, John.’

He released my hand and pushed it away. ‘I can’t hold it. Don’t. Touch. Me.’

‘Why not? Why can’t I touch you?’

‘I will tell you when we’re home,’ he said, his voice thick with sleep. ‘I should have told you a long time ago. But I didn’t want to lose you. I will tell you. I should tell Emma, but I don’t want to lose her.’ His voice was very soft. ‘Dear Emma. Don’t leave me.’

‘I won’t leave you, John.’

He drifted away.

Leo and Simone returned the next morning to pick him up. The doctor tried to make him stay longer, but he insisted that he was fine and wanted to go home. Leo backed him up and together they bullied the doctor into releasing him.

He couldn’t use crutches with a broken arm. The hospital lent us a wheelchair. Leo wheeled him down to the car, but he climbed clumsily into the passenger seat himself. He wouldn’t let Leo carry him. Leo shook his head, folded the wheelchair up and put it in the boot.

Mr Chen was mortified when he was wheeled past the smiling security guards back at the Peak. ‘This is not fitting.’

‘Deal with it,’ Leo said unsympathetically. ‘You won’t need it after you call the Lady.’

Mr Chen’s face went rigid and he didn’t say anything.

Leo wheeled him into his room. I hung back in the hallway, but Simone dragged me in with her.

Leo bent to assist Mr Chen into bed, but Mr Chen raised his hand. ‘Leo, I need your help. This is not an order, this is a request.’

Leo stopped.

‘The hospital staff tried to clean me up, but there is still mud and blood on me. There is also demon venom and it needs to come off. Will you help me?’

Leo silently watched him.

Mr Chen’s face was full of regret. ‘I would understand if you declined.’

They looked at each other for a long time.

Leo turned to me. ‘Emma, have a look in the kitchen and see if you can find some plastic bags and rubber bands. We’ll need to keep the plaster dry.’

Leo came into the kitchen later. Simone was noisily slurping the ramen that I’d made for her.

“Bout time you ate something,’ Leo said.

Simone slammed her chopsticks onto the table. ‘I want to see Daddy.’

‘Daddy’s sleeping.’ Leo pulled a coffee mug out of the cupboard. ‘Leave him alone.’

Simone returned to the noodles and ate them more slowly.

‘Where’s Monica?’ I said.

‘Gone to the market,’ Leo said.

When Simone had finished the noodles I took her for a nap. She fell asleep almost immediately; she’d been awake most of the night with Leo. I went into my room, showered and changed, and returned to the kitchen. Leo was still there, glowering at his coffee.

I sat across from him. ‘He’s not out of the woods yet, is he?’

Leo shook his head without looking up. ‘He needs Kwan Yin.’ He nodded.

I inhaled sharply as I understood. ‘He’s too damn proud to call her.’

‘He drives me completely crazy sometimes.’

‘Do you have the number for the house in Montmartre?’

He smiled at me. ‘That house doesn’t exist.’

‘What?’

‘Ms Kwan made it for him. It’s not real. It’s about as far from the demons’ power centre as you can get, that’s why they do it there. But the house isn’t real at all.’

‘What about London? Charlie? James?’

‘Oh, they’re real all right; he’s had that house for years. But they’d have even less chance of contacting her than we would.’

I ran my hands through my hair. ‘Jade? Gold?’

‘Yeah.’ He grimaced at his coffee. ‘I asked him why he didn’t want Gold to help clean him up instead of me.’ He shrugged. ‘The demons killed them. They’re dead.’

‘No!’ I rubbed my hands over my face. ‘No, Leo, they’re Shen, I know they are. You can’t kill Shen. They just go away for a while and then come back.’

‘He says about three or four months.’

‘That long?’

He nodded.

‘What are we going to do?’

He studied his coffee, full of misery. ‘Hope that he has the sense to call her before he fades away.’

I crossed my arms on the table and flopped my head on them. ‘No.’

He sighed with feeling, finished his coffee and rose. ‘I’ll be in the training room.’

When Simone woke she was listless and uninterested in everything I tried to do with her. Eventually I planted her in front of the television and she watched it, eyes wide and unseeing.

I pulled a book out and attempted to read. I kept reading the same page over and over without comprehension.

I jumped; I’d heard a noise. I rushed to the door and looked outside. Nope; not Ms Kwan at the door.

I went to Mr Chen’s room, opened the door slightly and checked on him. He appeared to be asleep, his face peaceful. He looked very, very old. He didn’t move.

I returned to the television room and tried to read the book.

A couple of hours later Monica prepared lunch for us and we sat around the table looking at it.

Simone picked up some vegetables in her chopsticks, then put them down again.

I sipped my tea.

Leo threw himself up and went back to the training room without saying a word.

Simone and I returned to the television room.

Half an hour later I heard another sound and rushed out. Ms Kwan wasn’t there. I sat on the couch in the television room and put my head in my hands. Leo was still in the training room doing a level one sword kata over and over. I’d had enough.

I grabbed Simone and took her into his room. I dragged a chair from beside the wall, jammed it next to the bed and sat in it. I pulled Simone into my lap.

He turned his head to look at me without saying anything.

‘You see this?’ I hissed. ‘This is the reason all of us are here.’

His eyes flicked to Simone and something changed in them.

‘Think of what would happen to her if you were to go now.’

He didn’t say anything. I wanted to slap him.

I half rose so that I could get closer to him, still holding Simone in my lap. ‘Call her. Get her here now.’

His eyebrows creased and he turned his face away.

Simone obviously didn’t understand, but didn’t say anything. I stood and gently lowered her to the floor. ‘And you think we’re stupid!’

The doorbell rang and Simone shrieked with delight. ‘Aunty Kwan’s here! Aunty Kwan’s here!’ She raced out the door.

I poked my finger into the air at him. ‘I am not finished with you.’

He ran his good hand over his forehead and smiled with some of the old sparkle. ‘I sincerely hope not.’

Ms Kwan appeared in the doorway. ‘Out, Emma.’

I went to her and took her hands. ‘Thanks for coming.’

She pushed my hands away. ‘Go. Quickly.’ I went out and closed the door behind me. Leo came out of the training room, the sword still in his hand. ‘Was that her?’

‘Yep.’

He fell to lean against the wall and wiped his hand over his face.

‘Get some rest,’ I said.

‘After I have something to eat,’ he said. ‘Suddenly I’m starving.’

‘Me too!’ Simone said.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I wonder if Monica’s thrown our lunch away yet.’

‘She doesn’t throw food away, Emma, you know that.’

‘Let’s go and see.’