White Tiger

and carried weapons. They had two legs and two arms, but their faces were grotesque and twisted, with huge bulging eyes and gaping mouths with tusks. Some had hair sticking out from their heads in tufts; others were bald with horns. Some were scaly. Some were slimy. Most were shiny black, but two were blood-red. I’d faced these in training as well. Nasty demons, difficult to destroy. Sometimes they could block chi blasts, and when they did, the chi would backfire and knock its sender over. Better to attack physically.
    Simon Wong brought up the rear. He was carrying the Wudang sword and rode some sort of two-legged purple lizard. He saw me watching through the window, and waved and blew me a kiss.
    The men on the lawn charged to meet the demons. I turned away and concentrated on the stairs. I had an incongruous thought: Simone and I were the only females there. I hefted my sword. Time to show them just what we chicks could do.
    Glass shattered downstairs.
    ‘What’ve we got, Simone?’ Leo said.
    ‘Dogs. A lot of them.’
    The dogs raced out of the dining room into the downstairs hallway in a rippling brown pack. There appeared to be about fifteen of them. They turned together, charged up the stairs and opened their mouths to blow fire at us.
    I made my sword sing and they froze.
    Leo dashed down the stairs and made short work of them, tearing through them with Dark Heavens. He swung the sword so fast it whistled. They shredded where he touched them.
    When they were all gone he turned to come back up the stairs, his face full of grim triumph. I pulled the chi out of my sword and it went silent.
    ‘No, Emma!’ Simone cried, but it was too late.
    A ball of flame hit the back of Leo’s head and knocked him off his feet. He hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs, face down, with a sickening thump. The dog that had hit him ran from under the stairs and turned, scrabbling for purchase on the tiles.
    I hit the demon with a ball of chi and it exploded all over Leo.
    I didn’t move. Neither did Simone. Leo lay scorched, blackened and unmoving at the base of the stairs.
    ‘Any more demons down there?’ I said.
    ‘One more, hiding,’ Simone said. ‘It’s around the corner, under the stairs.’
    ‘Any more apart from that?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Any demons close enough to come into the house in the next two minutes?’
    Simone concentrated, then, ‘No.’
    ‘Okay. This is what we’ll do. I’ll make the sword sing. If the demon is frozen, we’ll go down and you destroy it with chi. Then we can help Leo.’
    ‘Okay,’ she whispered.
    I made the sword sing. Simone nodded: the demon was frozen.
    We carefully eased down the stairs. The dog demon stood unmoving next to the base of the stairs. Simone threw a ball of energy at it and it exploded.
    ‘Any more?’ I whispered.
    Simone didn’t answer. She raced to Leo and fell to her knees next to his head. She turned to me to say something, then her eyes went wide.
    Simon Wong appeared, crouching behind her. He grabbed her around the waist. He grinned at me over the top of her head and winked.
    ‘Don’t move, Simone,’ I said.
    ‘Help, Emma,’ she said softly.
    I made the sword sing. Wong froze. I gingerly eased myself towards him, trying to find the distance I needed to blow him up.
    Simone yelled: he’d squeezed her. He wasn’t frozen at all.
    ‘Don’t come any closer or I’ll squeeze her so hard I’ll break her.’
    I concentrated, gathered myself, and threw a huge ball of chi straight at his head, using the sword as a slingshot.
    He raised one hand and the energy was deflected. It returned to the sword. If I’d lost that much chi, it would have killed me.
    ‘Try anything stupid like that again and I’ll rip one of her arms off,’ he said as if he was passing the time of day.
    I remained still with my sword in front of me. I checked Leo: he looked dead. If the demon was past John and the Tiger, then they were dead too. And if Jade and Gold were any example, it would be a long time before they were back. Maybe more than a lifetime for John.
    If I attacked the demon with anything physical he’d hurt Simone.
    I was out of options.
    He saw me hesitate. ‘Why don’t you come with us and care for her? Wouldn’t you like that, dear one? You can keep an eye on her for me.’
    I lowered my sword. It didn’t matter where Simone went, I would follow her to the depths of Hell if I had to.
    He grinned with triumph. ‘Put your sword down and come a little