Red Phoenix

some of the energy points on the meridians down Leo’s back.
    ‘Over again,’ she said, and pulled the remains of the shirt from him after we’d turned him over. She concentrated on the energy points on his chest, up his neck, and across his face.
    Leo relaxed and smiled with his eyes closed. Then he looked up at her and nodded, smiling, mouth still firmly shut.
    ‘You’re most welcome,’ Meredith said softly. ‘The anaesthetising effect will last for a few hours.’ ‘Well?’ John said.
    ‘I can’t do this by myself,’ Meredith said, ‘and none of the others has enough experience with energy. I’m sorry, my Lord, without another energy expert I simply can’t do it.’
    ‘Try Emma,’ John said.
    ‘She’s not Immortal,’ Meredith said. ‘You let your love cloud your judgement.’
    ‘No, I don’t,’ John said. ‘Try anyway. She can do shen work and she can use her Inner Eye. Try.’
    Meredith stiffened and glanced sharply at me.
    ‘Please, Meredith, for Leo,’ I said. ‘Please.’
    ‘First we need to move him back to the house and somewhere comfortable,’ Meredith said. ‘This will take a while.’
    John raised his head and spoke loudly. ‘Immortals, carry. Jade, Emma. Gold, Simone. Tiger, Michael. Meredith, Leo. I will walk. Back to the house. Liu, dismissed. Report.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
    T he world blinked out, then I was next to the bed in Leo’s room. I fell over, but strong arms hoisted me into a chair. The world stopped spinning and I saw Meredith holding me.
    ‘It will go away very quickly,’ she said. ‘It was just a short distance.’
    Somebody pushed a glass of water into my hand but I shoved it away. I threw myself up, ignoring the dizziness, and stumbled to Leo’s bedside to hold his hand. He smiled at me, his mouth carefully closed. His expression went strange.
    ‘Somebody get him a bowl, very quickly,’ I said, but Meredith was already shoving one in front of him from the other side of the bed. He spat out blood. He gagged on it, and more came out.
    ‘How much healing energy work have you done, Emma?’ Meredith said softly without turning away from Leo.
    ‘Apart from using the phoenix feather on Leo last time a demon injured him, none at all.’ I shook my head with remorse. ‘I wish I’d brought it with me.’
    ‘Waste of time.’ Meredith put the bowl on the bedside table. ‘You’d need at least two feathers to fix this.’
    ‘Damn.’
    ‘Let’s see if we can do this. You will be a receptacle.’ Meredith took both of Leo’s hands. ‘You don’t really need to do anything, just be able to hold enough chi .’ She put her hand on my shoulder and studied me closely. ‘You’ll do.’ She turned back to Leo. ‘Has anybody ever done energy healing on you before?’
    Leo shook his head without opening his mouth.
    ‘Then you will find this a most interesting experience. Don’t panic, it won’t hurt. If you feel like you’re suffocating on your tongue at all, just breathe. That’s normal. You won’t suffocate, I promise. Do you understand?’
    Leo nodded, perfectly calm.
    ‘Right, then,’ Meredith said crisply, sounding like an English matron. ‘Let’s get started. Emma, hold my hand.’ She took my left hand in her right. ‘Stay very still and keep your mind clear. Feel free to follow along; you might find this enlightening. You may learn something. Leo.’ She took Leo’s right hand in her left. ‘Just breathe. You won’t suffocate, despite what it feels like. Relax. Don’t worry if you feel sleepy, just let yourself doze off, it will make the procedure go faster for you. Okay, people, let’s do this.’ Her voice softened as she reached inside Leo and his energy meridians lit up like Christmas tree lights. ‘You are in a great deal of serious trouble, young Emma.’ She moved the energy through Leo. ‘I don’t want to be anywhere around when Lord Xuan finally sits you down; he is going to go quite spare.’
    John and Gold were waiting in the hall when we came out of the room. Both of us were exhausted. John had a face like thunder; rigid with control.
    ‘Don’t bother getting stuck into her right now,’ Meredith said to John. ‘She won’t hear you, she’sabsolutely exhausted, and so am I. Both of us are going to our rooms to collapse and sleep for a week. When we come round we will be starving, so be ready for us with a great deal of fresh food. After that you can feel free to kill missy Emma if you like.’
    She was right.