The Demon and the City

going to live this down." And what would Chen say? The demon realized with a degree of amazement that he actually cared what a human thought of him. He groped for the bottle and poured another measure.
    "You do not know why?" The badger's dark gaze was as opaque as obsidian.
    "I haven't the faintest."
    "Perhaps you are changing."
    "Changing? What do you mean?"
    "Those who have visited the lower levels find that their form begins to alter after a while. A demon countenance forms a muzzle, small eyes, thicker blood. Humans change, too, become more bestial."
    "I know, but I've come to Earth from Hell. If any changes were to occur, you'd think I'd become more human—oh." Zhu Irzh stopped.
    "Is that not what humans do? Demons are cruel, rarefied, cunning. They devise magnificent punishments, vindictive and baroque. Is that not the very essence of Hell? While humans are merely slaves to their instincts. Perhaps your instincts are changing."
    "Perhaps," Zhu Irzh said dubiously. It was a possibility, but not one that he really wanted to entertain. He gestured toward the bottle.
    "Want some?"
    The badger's pointed head shook from side to side.
    "I do not take such drinks. Only blood."
    Zhu Irzh regarded the creature with a sudden spark of speculation.
    "Human blood?"
    But the badger did not reply. Change shimmered the air, and Zhu Irzh blinked.
    When the demon once more opened his eyes, there was only an old iron teakettle sitting on the deck.
    "Suit yourself," Zhu Irzh remarked to the weighty air, and turned disconsolately back to the bottle.

Twenty
    When she got back to the penthouse, Jhai went straight to the bathroom and spent twenty minutes in the jacuzzi, soaking away the day. Then she walked slowly into the dim expanse of her bedroom and stood before the mirror. Her reflection captured her movements, and nothing more, but in the depths of her own gaze, she could see something golden and old. She smiled, a quick grimace, knowing that Zhu Irzh had seen it, too. She could still feel the warmth of his hand on her cheek.
    "For fuck's sake," she said aloud, disgusted with herself. She'd realized what Zhu Irzh was as soon as she'd set eyes on him: a combination of things, all intriguing.
    A potential enemy: the person who could, if he chose, bring all of her plans crashing down around her.
    A possible ally: the person who could, again if he chose, secure those plans and help them become real.
    A hunter: uniquely placed to track down the missing experiment that Robin Yuan had so disastrously let slip through Paugeng's fingers. Whatever Zhu Irzh might be, Jhai knew that he would be of use. How stupid Ei had been to capture him and attempt to bluster. Jhai had been furious to discover this on her return from Beijing.
    But all those useful things that Zhu Irzh might be had completely gone out the window, now, because . . . Jhai sat heavily down on the bed and put her head in her hands. How ironic. She knew what the demon must be thinking: she'd used some form of pheromonal glamour, hormone enhancement, on him in a calculated attempt at teasing seduction to throw him off balance. She had done it before, after all; the city was littered with Jhai's conquests, male and female. She'd gained the reputation of South China's most heartless flirt, bringing entire boardrooms to their knees. Literally, in some cases. But boardrooms weren't bedrooms, Jhai reflected bitterly. This time, the glamour with which she'd dazzled Zhu Irzh had not been intentional; he had summoned it forth all by himself, and there was nothing she could do about it.
    On the few times when she had allowed relationships to get as far as the actual bedroom, her abilities had deserted her. She'd had to pretend, to avoid the threat of a rumor that she was nothing more than a frigid cock-tease. It was the drug, of course, that held her power, and therefore her sexuality, in check. Without the drug, she could be as uninhibited as she chose, but without the drug, she wouldn't be quite human any longer, either. She knew what her ancestresses had been, long ago in ancient India. They had been devas : demon courtesans, wielding enough sexual and sensual power to control emperors. In the Hell that corresponded to Singapore Three, Jhai would be an Imperial whore. Here on Earth, if she gave her powers their full rein, she could have an empire of her own to control. It was illegal for demonkind to live unlicensed on Earth, yet Jhai knew for a fact that there were more than a