Red Phoenix

CHAPTER ONE
    I woke with a shock and stared at the ceiling, gasping for breath. Simone! A demon had us…No. I was safe in our apartment at the Peak. We’d escaped from the demon Simon Wong with help from the King of the Demons himself. Leo had been injured, John had lost nearly all of his diminishing energy and left us, but we’d made it with help from the God of the West, the White Tiger, Bai Hu.
    I shook my head and sat up. I still felt a slight throb where some force, whatever it was, had leapt up in me and forced the Demon King out of my head during his probing mental examination of me, but apart from that I was okay.
    I quickly jumped out of bed and dressed. I needed to find the others and check on them.
    Five-year-old Simone, John’s daughter and a little girl I loved as my own.
    Leo, her bodyguard and one of my truest friends.
    And John, Xuan Wu, Dark Lord of the North, God of Martial Arts, a Turtle that had lost its Serpent…and my fiancé. It would take some time to become used to the idea of being engaged to a god, even if we wouldn’t be able to marry until after he’d lost hisremaining energy and left us for any time between ten and a hundred years. We couldn’t even touch each other until then, because he would drain out my energy and kill me. I had to trust that I would still be alive when he returned and we could have everything we wanted for each other.
    I shook my head again and opened the door that joined my room with Simone’s. Way to go, Emma, make your life as complicated as possible. Become engaged to a god that you can’t even touch and let him give you Regency over his Empire when he’s gone.
    I was sure that all hell had broken loose in Heaven when the Jade Emperor had heard about this. I winced. Well, we’d soon know exactly how much trouble we were in when Kwan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, returned from Heaven with the bad tidings.
    Leo and John were already in the dining room sharing breakfast when Simone and I went in. Leo was reading the English language newspaper, and John sat with his eyes unfocused, obviously talking silently to someone. When he saw Simone he snapped back, dropped his spoon into his congee and held his arm out to her.
    Simone crawled into his lap and kissed him on the cheek, then pulled back to study him carefully. ‘Morning, Daddy, are you okay? You and Leo nearly died.’
    Leo grunted and shook the newspaper. ‘Ugliest damn scar I’ve ever seen.’
    ‘Better than a giant freaking hole in the back of your head,’ I retorted as I sat down next to him. He smiled sideways at me from behind the newspaper then ignored me again.
    John gazed intensely at me over the top of Simone’s head. ‘How are you feeling, Emma?’
    I rested my chin in my hand and became lost in his wonderful dark eyes. ‘Better and better every day.’
    Leo folded the newspaper and pushed it to one side, next to the remains of his breakfast. ‘Is anything up, sir? You’ve been “on the phone” there for a while now.’
    ‘Wait.’ John raised his hands and his eyes unfocused again. Then he snapped back. ‘I’ve told them to leave me alone for a few minutes, but yes, there are quite a few people talking to me right now.’
    I winced. ‘About me and the Regency thing?’
    ‘Amongst other things, yes.’ John smiled down at Simone where she sat in his lap. ‘Ms Kwan will be here soon, Simone, and after you’ve eaten she wants to talk to you for a while.’
    Simone nodded, serious. ‘About the dead people and stuff. I understand, Daddy, that was awful.’
    Yes, she will receive counselling from Kwan Yin, John said into my head. She’s very clever sometimes, she knows exactly what is going on.
    ‘I’ll ask Monica for my cereal,’ Simone said, and her eyes unfocused.
    ‘Don’t talk to Monica silently,’ John said quickly. ‘She doesn’t like it, okay?’
    ‘Well, I’m not shouting at her like you do,’ Simone shot back, and clambered out of his lap to go to the door of the kitchen. ‘You’re rude sometimes, Daddy. What would you like, Emma?’
    ‘Tea and toast, thank you, Simone,’ I said.
    She nodded. ‘I’ll tell Monica.’
    ‘Kwan Yin is on her way with a message from the Celestial,’ John said. ‘Hopefully not all the news is bad. Would you like to talk to her as well, Emma?’
    ‘If you mean counselling, no, I’m fine,’ I said. ‘But one thing is bugging me about the day before yesterday. Simon Wong just held us, he didn’t try to do anything to us.