Blue Dragon

energy before I’ll blow myself up!’
    ‘Use the weapon to throw the energy,’ Gold said.
    ‘That is with the weapon throwing the energy.’
    Another elemental appeared at the doorway. As soon as it entered the room I threw energy from the sword and blew it up.
    ‘Where’s the goddamn Phoenix? She’s fire, it’s strong against metal.’
    ‘She is dealing with the other hundred fifty odd elementals outside the living room windows,’ Gold said. ‘The forty I mentioned are already in the living room, but the seals are still holding them.’
    Another elemental appeared. I threw chi at it; it exploded.
    ‘That one was even bigger!’ I wailed. ‘I can’t take any more out with chi. We’ll have to move to hand-to-hand.’
    ‘We can’t,’ Gold said. ‘Weapons are useless against them. Pass the chi to me, Emma, I’ll absorb it.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous, I need you alive.’
    I had a sudden inspiration. I didn’t have time to speak; another elemental appeared in the doorway. Black chi would send the energy away, if it worked. Please work.
    I dropped my sword, generated black chi in my hands, and threw it directly at the demon. The chi ricocheted off the elemental’s shiny metal surface and hit Leo square in the chest, knocking him off his feet.
    I prepared another ball of black chi and threw it at the demon. The demon absorbed it.
    There was a sickening wet sucking sound from Leo, but I couldn’t turn away from the demon to see him. It sounded like somebody dislocating the bones on a beef carcass. I’d killed him.
    The demon approached me, its bladed hands spinning. I readied myself, and generated ordinary gold energy on my hands. I was very close to the edge with energy. It was quite likely that this bolt would kill me. The demon’s spinning blades were very close to my head.
    The demon stopped dead and the blades disappeared. I hesitated, waiting to see what it would do.
    It held its arms out on either side of me and generated two halves of a cage, one from each arm. It closed them together around me with a metallic clang, nearly taking my feet off as it swept the cage halves along the floor.
    I was trapped in a spherical silver cage. I called my sword to me, but it didn’t come.
    A long metal spike flashed out of the demon cage and stabbed me in the left thigh. I shrieked with pain, grabbed it and tried to pull it free of my leg, but it wouldn’t shift.
    It burned straight into my leg and my leg went numb. Either poison or sedative; probably a sedative. Wong wanted me harmless before he took me.
    I concentrated and filled my hands with energy, ready to blast the demon through direct contact. This would probably kill me, but the alternative was worse than death. I concentrated in the split second I knew I had before it took me.
    ‘Don’t do anything, Emma!’ Gold yelled. ‘Help is on its way!’
    Na Zha appeared on the other side of the demon in True Form—a young man of about twenty in traditional pale blue robes, a headpiece on his topknot, long hair flowing. Allow me, he said, and threw his razor-sharp ring weapon, glowing with energy, at the demon, slicing straight through it. The weapon returned to him. The demon dissipated.
    Na Zha disappeared. I will take out the rest. See to Leo and Gold.
    ‘Are you okay, ma’am?’ Gold said. ‘That leg looks bad.’
    ‘I’ll live.’ Somehow I managed to stay on my feet. ‘I don’t think it injected too much into me. What about you?’
    ‘We’re fine,’ Gold said. ‘But I think you’ve killed poor Leo. Was that black chi?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said, and limped to Leo’s side. I stopped dead when I saw him. ‘Holy shit.’
    ‘You got it in one,’ Gold said. ‘Is he alive?’
    Leo was an enormous black lion lying like death on the floor. I lowered myself stiffly to sit next to him. I didn’t have time to worry about the sedative, and it didn’t seem to be affecting me too badly. I lifted one of Leo’s forelegs and felt along the underside of the limb. There was a pulse, and I sagged with relief. ‘He’s alive.’
    ‘Take care, Emma,’ Gold said. ‘When he comes around he may be one hundred per cent beast and mad as hell.’
    The lion’s dark brown eyes opened and cast around, looking, not focusing. Leo’s eyes.
    ‘Leo,’ I whispered. ‘Leo, are you okay?’
    ‘What happened to me?’ the lion whispered in Leo’s voice. ‘I can’t move.’
    We are victorious, John said into my ear. I’m coming home.
    Leo dropped his