White Tiger

needed.’
    ‘Good,’ Simone said, relieved, and slurped her apple juice.
    ‘What do you have to do to attain perfection?’ I said.
    Ah Yat stirred the noodles. ‘There are a number of paths a demon may choose to follow. Serving a mighty lord such as Lord Xuan Wu is one of them. If I servehim well, he will put in a recommendation for me when I am ready. I am nearly there.’
    She poured the noodles into a bowl and presented them to Simone. ‘Take care, my darling, they are very hot. Wait a moment, I will cool them.’ She put one hand over the noodles and concentrated. ‘There.’
    ‘Thanks, Ah Yat,’ Simone said. She pulled the noodles closer and attacked them with gusto.
    ‘Where do you buy your groceries?’ I said. ‘You’re miles from anywhere here.’
    ‘The Dark Lord has a house in the city. I travel to that house, walk out the door and do the shopping. Then I return to the house and travel here. To others it appears that I live in the city.’
    ‘I can see why he has this particular type of staff up here. Normal people would be limited by its remoteness.’
    ‘We are demons, Miss Emma. Do not hesitate to say the word. We are aware of our nature and are working to overcome it, with help from the Dark Lord.’ She sighed through her smile. ‘It is true bliss to serve in such a manner.’
    One of the male demons, Ah Sum, showed me to my room. It was decorated like a colonial-style hotel, with white wicker furniture and a large window overlooking the spectacular view. A fluffy double bed sat under the window, and a pair of rattan chairs flanked a side table. Another chair sat under a desk on the other side of the room, beneath a large mirror with a white wicker frame. It was spotlessly clean, and the demons had already unpacked for me and put my clothes into the dresser.
    ‘Is your name Number Three?’ I asked Ah Sum.
    ‘That is correct. Ah Yat is Number One, Ah Yee is Number Two, I am Number Three, and Ah Say is Number Four.’
    ‘You should have real names. Just being numbers isn’t really enough.’
    ‘We are delighted to be called anything, ma’am,’ he said, and went out.
    A while later there was a tap on the door. ‘Come in,’ I said.
    Mr Chen came in, stood uncomfortably for a moment, then flopped down in one of the rattan chairs next to the wall. He raised his hands. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
    I leaned on the desk, facing him. ‘Sorry would be a good place to start.’
    He rose and bowed slightly. ‘My apologies, Miss Donahoe.’
    ‘What else haven’t you told me? Things that I need to know?’
    ‘Probably a lot, Emma.’
    ‘Great. One day you’ll forget to tell me something important and you’ll get me killed .’ I sighed with exasperation. ‘The demon Wong—while you were on the Mountain. Do you know what he said?’
    Mr Chen watched me, expressionless.
    ‘He suggested that I pay you a midnight visit. He said we could have years. He was right, wasn’t he? We do have years. He made sense. So I did.’
    He opened his mouth and I stopped him with a raised hand.
    ‘I had my hand on your door. I don’t know what stopped me. I was so close to going in to you and getting myself killed.’ I banged the desk with frustration. ‘It was such a close thing, you know? Ms Kwan told me, she warned me. If she hadn’t told me the next day I would probably have gone to you that night. Gone right in there and let you kill me.’
    He opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off. ‘And you did absolutely nothing to warn me! Youdidn’t tell me, you didn’t ask Leo to tell me—what the hell is wrong with you?’
    The anguish on his face made my heart ache.
    ‘You didn’t tell me that the demons might try me out. I was wandering around town blithely unaware of the fact that they could crawl out of the woodwork any minute and have a go at me.’
    He looked away.
    ‘ And you never told me that Ah Yat was a tame demon. She’s only a level six, John, I could destroy her with one arm behind my back! Six hundred years of hard work, gone! Enough, all right? You have to tell me the things I need to know!’
    I dropped into the wicker chair next to him and ran my hands through my hair. The thought came unbidden: I loved this stupid man so much. And I couldn’t even touch him.
    He rose and moved in front of me. He held out his hand and I eyed it suspiciously. He nodded reassurance, so I took his hand, trusting him completely. I fully expected his touch to kill me, but