Red Phoenix

man with a completely bald head, a long flowing white beard and matching white eyebrows. His eyes twinkled merrily as he smiled up at us. He held one hand in the traditional Shaolin greeting of a half-prayer and bowed slightly.
    The Energy Master, also Master Liu, was a tall, elegant European woman with short dark hair and an intelligent, angular face, appearing in her mid-forties. She saluted us Chinese-style, hand on fist.
    ‘Hi, Emma,’ she called in her delightful English accent.
    ‘Hi, Meredith,’ I called back. I really liked Meredith, she was the only Master who didn’t give me a lot of grief about calling me ‘Lady Emma’.
    ‘What do we have here, my Lord?’ the Shaolin Master said as we neared the bottom of the stairs.
    ‘About fifty of them, only small ones, taking the form of English schoolchildren,’ John said.
    ‘Always knew English schoolboys were right demonic little bastards,’ Meredith said cheerfully.
    As soon as we were all together, the Immortals stopped and looked at each other. Then they turned as one to face the exit of the loading dock where it met the street.
    ‘Goodness me,’ Meredith said evenly. ‘South Kensington is Demon Central today.’
    John faced the alley. ‘Here they come, and the ones from inside are coming out as well. Attacked from both sides. Put the children and Emma in the middle—’
    ‘Oh no you don’t,’ I said loudly. ‘Put me next to Meredith and I’ll use energy. She can help me when I fill up.’
    John opened his mouth to say something and I glared him down.
    ‘Permission to fight, my Lord,’ Michael said. ‘Let me at them.’
    ‘Let him,’ I said. ‘It’s his job.’ ‘Very well,’ John said.
    ‘And I’m not a child ,’ he said under his breath.
    ‘I know,’ I whispered back. ‘But both of us are, compared to them.’
    Jade remained in dragon form. She sharpened the golden claws of one foreleg against the claws of the other with a metallic rasping sound.
    Gold froze and concentrated, then his whole body turned into the same stuff his stone was made of: quartz gleaming with veins of gold. He still moved fluidly, even though he was made of stone.
    The door at the top of the fire escape opened and the children came down the stairs. They dropped the childlike act as they came, becoming very quiet and serious, their little feet moving in unison like a zombie army.
    ‘Emma, Meredith, Michael, Liu,’ John said, and pointed behind him. ‘Me, Jade, Gold,’ and pointed next to him. ‘Simone between us.’ He cracked his knucklesloudly. ‘Count them as you take them. The one who destroys the fewest is buying dinner.’
    ‘I’ll lose then,’ Meredith said cheerfully over her shoulder as she moved into position next to me. ‘My Art is the slowest. But that’s okay, I know an excellent family-friendly pub over near Oxford Circus. The little Princess will love it.’
    ‘Not Western food,’ John moaned. More demons appeared at the end of the alley. These looked like ordinary European men and women. ‘You women hate me.’
    Meredith and I shared a smile. Then we turned to face the demons.
    ‘Look sharp, Emma,’ Meredith said. ‘If you fill up, just point the energy in my direction and let go, or throw it into the ground. Please don’t blow yourself up, dear. If you do, the Dark Lord will be totally impossible for absolutely bloody ages.’
    The demons moved into range and I threw balls of chi at them, making them explode with a satisfying thump. ‘You mean more impossible, Meredith.’
    Shaolin Master Liu ran into the middle of the demons and cut through them with hands, fists and feet. He was so fast he was a tan-coloured blur. Demons exploded around him as he shredded them. He took the time to bounce off the wall and throw himself back into the middle of them.
    ‘Show-off!’ Meredith yelled as she blew up demons with a devastating destructive rhythm. She stopped using energy and went in next to Master Liu, using the tai chi moves with deadly speed and accuracy, her hands glowing with energy as she struck. The Lius positioned themselves back to back and cut down every demon that approached them.
    My energy neared a dangerous level as I absorbed the demons’ chi. ‘Heads up, Meredith!’ I shouted, andshot a large ball of chi straight at her. She caught it, broke it into tiny balls, and scattered them around her, hitting about twenty demons at the same time.
    Michael faced the demons one at a time and was more than a match