Red Phoenix

cooperate at the end of the year.’
    ‘What happens at the end of the year?’ John said.
    ‘I have no idea,’ Ralph said.
    I had a sudden inspiration. ‘The biotech. Were they making snake hybrids too?’ ‘Yes,’ Ralph said. ‘No,’ John said.
    ‘Did you see any of them?’ I asked.
    ‘Yes,’ Ralph said.
    ‘Not possible,’ John said.
    ‘Did they look like me on the inside?’ I said.
    ‘Leave it, Emma!’ John said fiercely. ‘It’s just not possible! I would know!’
    ‘No,’ Ralph said, ignoring John completely and well aware of the fact that he was walking a fine line. ‘You are something completely different.’
    I relaxed. Then I leaned forward to speak earnestly to him. ‘Ralph,’ I said, ‘please answer this next question as honestly as you can. What am I?’
    ‘You are a perfectly ordinary human being—’ I suddenly wanted to leap up and smack him in the face ‘—with a great deal of Serpent essence that seems to come and go,’ Ralph said.
    ‘It comes and goes?’ John said.
    ‘Yes,’ Ralph said. ‘Right now, she doesn’t have much of it there at all. In battle, though, much more of it comes out.’
    ‘That’s what happened in Central,’ John said to me. ‘Your Serpent essence took that demon out.’
    ‘The one that was shooting for Mother?’ Ralph said. ‘The one that disappeared in Central? You did that?’
    ‘I think I did, but I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘I can’t remember very much about it. I faced her, I hit her, then I woke up in hospital with my face minced.’ Shooting for Mother. ‘I’ve dreamed that I’m a Mother. Do I look like a Mother?’
    ‘Something like a Mother—’ Ralph said.
    John banged the arm of his chair. ‘No, Emma!’
    ‘—but not quite. I’m sorry, my Lady, I’ve never seen anything like you before.’
    ‘I’m unique.’
    ‘Of course you are,’ John said. ‘And it is a direct result of time spent in constant contact with me, acting as a catalyst for your already present talents and Serpent nature. Remember, Emma, you are the first talented human female I have loved.’
    ‘That’s what I think,’ Ralph said. ‘If you’d been able to sleep together, it probably would have catalysed faster.’
    Both John and I stared at him.
    ‘I thought you two couldn’t touch,’ he said.
    ‘We spent a couple of days in the Western Palace together after John defeated One Two Two in Wan Chai,’ I said.
    The demon grinned. ‘Oh. A dirty weekend.’ John’s face went stiff. ‘Apologies, my Lord.’ Ralph chuckled. ‘There’s a book running on level six.’
    ‘Hell of the Poisonous Snakes?’ I said.
    John glanced sharply at me, then turned back to the demon.
    ‘Oh, very good, my Lady,’ Ralph said, his grin getting wider. ‘Well done.’ ‘A book?’ John said.
    ‘Let me see.’ Ralph reached into the pocket of his hound’s-tooth jacket and pulled out a piece of paper.He put his glasses back on, then unfolded the paper. ‘Ten to one, she’s a lost Southern Shen.’
    ‘Rainbow Serpent?’ I said.
    ‘Yes,’ Ralph said, the grin not shifting.
    ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ I said.
    ‘Five to one, she’s a lost dragon. Five to one, she’s your Serpent—’
    John cut him off. ‘Excellent!’ ‘What?’ I said.
    ‘That means that they don’t know,’ John said. ‘They won’t go after it.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I see what you mean.’
    Ralph continued as if John hadn’t said anything. He obviously understood. ‘Three to one, she’s escaped from level six and lost her memory. Also three to one, she’s a perfected Mother; but the Mothers deny most strongly that any of them has attempted perfection. But nobody believes those lying bitches anyway.’ His eyes sparkled through the glasses at me.
    ‘Ralph,’ I said.
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘When the eggs hatch, what do the Mothers do?’
    John glanced sharply at me but didn’t say anything.
    ‘They must be bound immediately, my Lady, because they will eat the nestlings. Straight away. When the eggs are close to hatching, they must be watched. With the larger Mothers, they usually only salvage one or two nestlings out of a clutch, the Mother is so fast.’
    I didn’t say anything. I tried to control my face. No wonder John hadn’t told me.
    Ralph smiled at John and turned back to the paper. ‘Two to one on, she’s something completely new, a new hybrid that escaped and nobody wants to claim ownership. Also two to one on, she’s a hybrid that’s been planted