Red Phoenix

stone fell silent, and I was about to berate it again when it spoke. ‘You fought valiantly, my Lady, but she was much too strong for you. She struck you in the arm. Then she hit you in the face. Then…’ It went silent again.
    ‘What?’
    If the stone could have sighed, it would have. ‘Then suddenly you were all over her, you were faster than her—’
    ‘Faster than a level fifty?’ I said with disbelief. ‘Not possible,’ John said.
    The stone ignored us. ‘And you took her out easily, then you fell. You were astonishing.’
    John studied me. ‘And you don’t remember doing it?’
    My throat was thick. ‘No.’
    We were all silent for a while.
    ‘What does this mean, my Lord?’ Leo said.
    ‘It means that I’m going to pull out a level forty-five and throw it at Emma next time she’s in Wan Chai,’ John said with satisfaction. ‘No, damn, I can’t get anything that big out, I’d start draining everything around me. One of the Masters can do it, and I’ll watch. Should be interesting to see.’
    ‘You have demons that big in a jar?’ I said.
    ‘Only one or two,’ John said. ‘May have to make do with a level forty. Don’t often come up against them with the chance to put them into the jar. I don’t have anything bigger than that.’
    ‘I’m not too sure about this,’ I said.
    ‘Don’t worry, I’ll have someone on hand just in case,’ John said. ‘But I’d really like to see you take out something that big with your bare hands.’
    ‘I would too,’ I said. ‘I have no idea how I did it.’
    ‘Stone?’ John said.
    ‘No idea either,’ the stone said. ‘I look forward to watching as well. Should be interesting.’
    A couple of weeks later I received a clean bill of health from Meredith and we tried it. I stood nervously next to the wall under the mirrors in the training room on the twelfth floor. I really wasn’t sure about this.
    Meredith waited next to the demon jar, watching me with quiet amusement. John leaned against the short wall of the room, arms folded over his chest.
    ‘Just do what you did in Central,’ he said quietly.
    ‘I have no idea what I did in Central,’ I said.
    ‘There’s two in here,’ Meredith said. ‘I’ll give you the female one. It’s a big humanoid. Should take human form. Was that what the one in Central was?’
    ‘I think so,’ I said. ‘Stone? Any idea?’
    The stone was silent.
    ‘It’s spending more and more time sleeping,’ I said. ‘Wake it up, it wanted to see,’ John said. I pulled the chain out from around my neck and tapped the stone. ‘Yes, my Lady?’
    ‘We’re going to do it. Big female humanoid. Is that the same?’
    ‘Sounds about right.’
    ‘Okay.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Go.’
    Meredith held her hand above the jar and one of the beads flew up into it. She threw the bead onto the floor at the base of the mirrors. The female demon materialised in human form.
    I went into a guard position and nodded without looking away from the demon.
    The demon stiffened and straightened to study me. ‘What are you?’
    ‘Damn. Why do they keep doing that? Okay,’ I said more loudly, ‘what am I?’
    The demon glared at me with contempt. ‘If I knew I wouldn’t be asking you.’
    ‘I’m a Snake Mother,’ I said.
    ‘Emma…’ John said from the side, but I ignored him.
    ‘No, you’re not,’ she said. ‘I’m a snake hybrid.’
    ‘Is that what you are?’ she said, tilting her head. ‘You don’t look like a hybrid.’
    ‘Emma, don’t worry about it!’ John said. ‘I’m a perfectly normal human being,’ I said.
    ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Then I should be able to take you easily !’ She went straight for my head with both hands, but I ducked under her and went through her, hitting her in the abdomen with both feet, one after the other, as I went past.
    She spun to follow me. ‘Trained by the Dark Lord himself,’ she said. ‘Impressive.’
    She came at me, her fists a blur. I managed to block the first three or four strikes, but quickly found myself unable to keep up with her and retreated, losing ground. She saw that I wasn’t nearly as fast as her and her face filled with grim satisfaction as she kept the strikes coming at my head. It was all I could do to stay out of the way.
    I fell back, dodging and weaving and making feeble attempts to block her flurry of blows.
    She hit me on the side of the head with a cracking thump. The floor crashed into me. I couldn’t see.
    ‘If she’s sustained